The Gigaba economy

Few amaze and confuse quite like former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba [View this email in your browser]( [The Ampersand]( November 3,2020 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there In the South African cinematic universe, there have been few who have amazed and confused quite like former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba. He of the sharp suits and rather dull intellect was caught up in a number of scandals but the one that really set him apart from the rest was that rather instructional video of a blue variety. Before we found out he was producing adult fare, Gigaba once made headlines for crusading against pornography. Yes, you read that correctly. When he was a lowly deputy minister of home affairs, he had attempted to help usher in the the Internet and Cellphone Pornography Bill in 2010. Under the proposed legislation, internet providers would be required by law to block access to all porn websites. Not porn depicting minors, or any other specifically heinous kind: all porn. Fortunately, of course, the Bill did not come close to growing into an Act. As well as being obscenely unconstitutional on a number of levels, it was also rather low on practicality. With thousands of new domains sprouted daily, Gigaba was unable to explain how he expected to police all of them. A decade later, it’s even harder to conceive of this Gigabytian dystopia. Stories of young women paying their way through school with sex work are nothing new, but in the months since the coronavirus became a pandemic, online sex work — often left out of discussions about ride-hailing and food-delivery apps — has become an increasingly mainstream facet of the gig economy. 2020’s [Extremely Online]( nature has been a boon for some. OnlyFans and Patreon, unlike other platforms, gives content creators the power to cut out the “middleman” — both digital and human — and allows them to reach their fans directly. The premise of both is simple: you pay a subscription and receive exclusive content. Exactly what content that is, is up to you, but OnlyFans especially has become synonymous with hosting that of a more adult variety. For many sex workers, the stratospheric rise of OnlyFans has provided a new, safer avenue in which to seek an income. There’s no physical interaction with clients or a need to haggle with a slimy porn producer. The platform, of course, takes a cut, but the power is very much with the performer. Sarah Smit has spoken to a handful of creators on the site and unpacked the [tricky business of OnlyFans](. How different it all could have been if we — the media, civil society and academia — didn’t call bullshit on Gigaba’s antics. Independent media gives power to people, but power doesn’t come for free. [Please consider taking out a subscription to support our work](. Do you have friends and colleagues who share your commitment to supporting journalism like ours? Forward this email to them (and thank you in advance). Yours in solidarity, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Special offer for readers of The Ampersand]( Want to subscribe to the Mail & Guardian? For a short period of time, we have an exclusive offer for readesr of The Ampersand. You can get access to everything on our website - including our archives, digital edition, crossword puzzles and subscriber only stories - [by paying just R99 for the first 99 days of your subscription](. Copyright © 2020 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.