Ayanda Denge

Ayanda Denge (1982 – 24 March 2019) was a South African trans woman, HIV and cancer survivor, and child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking survivor. transgender rights, and for the rights of people (mostly women) who had survived sex trafficking. Denge later became associated with abolitionist positions, and joined the South African feminist organisation Embrace Dignity, which campaigns for the abolition of prostitution and sex trafficking under the "Equality Model".

Life Denge was Xhosa, and grew up in the city of Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Denge lived in Cape Town, South Africa. It was reported that Denge's room was locked with a padlock from the outside and it was only when a leader at the residence peeped through the window out of concern for her well-being that anyone noticed her body on the floor. The electricity had been cut, causing the building to be completely dark at night. The organisation includes sex workers, activists, and advocates and defenders of human rights, and the steering committee consists of the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement (Sisonke), the Women's Legal Centre (WLC), the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), and Sonke Gender Justice. The organization aims through decriminalization to reduce the vulnerability of sex workers to violence and illness, and increase their access to labor, health, and justice services.

Denge was interviewed by the Daily Vox while attending the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, "Being transgender is not a double dose, but it's a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination. You are discriminated against for your sexual identity, you are discriminated against for your work, and you are discriminated against of your HIV status." She spoke out also against emotional abuse and police brutality, noting that the police confiscated sex workers' condoms.

Shift from Full Decriminalization to the Equality Model

In a 2018 profile published by Women in the World, Denge initially became involved with the sex worker–rights organization Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), supporting its advocacy for full decriminalization. However, after witnessing severe exploitation — including the case of a woman forced back to the streets days after giving birth — she began questioning the framing of prostitution as “work” and ultimately resigned.

She later joined Embrace Dignity, a feminist human-rights organization promoting the Equality Model, which decriminalizes people selling sex while penalizing pimps and buyers and emphasizing exit services and social support. Through Embrace Dignity, Denge advocated for law reform in South Africa and highlighted coercion and exploitation in the sex trade.