Staff Reporter
AS Zimbabwe joins the world in commemorating International Sex Workers’ Day, Springs of Life Zimbabwe, a sex worker-led human rights organisation, has welcomed the prioritisation of Lenacapavir, a long-acting injectable HIV prevention drug, while urging urgent reforms to ensure legal protection, dignity, and full access to healthcare for sex workers.
The organisation said the introduction of Lenacapavir marks a significant step in HIV prevention, particularly as sex workers are among the key populations prioritised for access. However, it warned that biomedical progress alone is not enough without addressing structural barriers such as criminalisation and discrimination.
“We celebrate Lenacapavir as a vital instrument of liberation for our bodies,” said Precious Msindo, Programmes Coordinator for Springs of Life Zimbabwe.
“However, a scientific breakthrough on paper is completely meaningless if institutional violence, criminalisation, and systemic discrimination stop it from reaching the people on the ground. True health equity cannot survive in a judicial vacuum.”
Msindo said sex workers continue to face arrests, stigma, extortion, and violence, which undermine access to health and justice services.
“Medicine alone cannot heal an individual who is forced to navigate life under the constant shadow of arbitrary arrests, extortion, and targeted physical assault,” she said.
The organisation said criminalisation remains the biggest barrier to health access, arguing that it isolates sex workers from constitutional protections and exposes them to abuse.
Springs of Life Zimbabwe called for urgent decriminalisation of sex work, police reform within the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), affordable access and local manufacturing of Lenacapavir, and community-led distribution of sexual and reproductive health services.
It said peer-led systems are critical to ensuring stigma-free access and improving trust in health delivery systems.
The organisation reaffirmed its commitment to advocacy, saying it will continue pushing for legal and structural reforms that recognise sex work as work and uphold sex workers’ rights as human rights.
