18/08/2026
📢A convicted killer walks free on parole. A s*x worker remains dead.
Nokuphila Kumalo will never get a second chance. Her family will never get her back. Yet the man convicted of brutally taking her life has been released after serving part of his sentence.
What message does this send?
That the life of a s*x worker is worth less?
That violence against s*x workers is something society can simply move on from?
For s*x workers across South Africa, this is not just another parole decision. It is a painful reminder that our lives continue to be treated as disposable.
We are angry. We are heartbroken and we refuse to be silent.
Nokuphila was a human being. She deserved safety. She deserved dignity. She deserved justice.
Until every act of violence against s*x workers is treated with the same seriousness as violence against anyone else, there can be no talk of equal justice.
Artist and murderer Zwelethu Mthethwa paroled
her name: Nokuphila Kumalo.
Her life mattered. It still does.
*xWorkersLivesMatter *xWork
