South Africa — Legal Help

Sex work — buying, selling and third-party involvement — remains fully criminalised under the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007, despite the Cabinet-approved 2022 decriminalisation bill still pending in Parliament. Age of consent is 16 (2007 Act); sex with a person 16–17 by an adult more than two years older is statutory. If detained, ask for the charge sheet, do not sign Afrikaans/English documents you cannot read, and call your embassy — most maintain consulates in Pretoria and Cape Town for lists of English-speaking attorneys, but cannot intervene in prosecutions.

Cannabis private adult use and cultivation was decriminalised by the Constitutional Court (Prince, 2018) and codified in the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 2024; sale remains illegal. All other recreational drugs fall under the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 with severe penalties.