Sex workers can’t be arrested: ConCourt

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THE Constitutional Court (ConCourt) yesterday outlawed the arrest of sex workers on charges of loitering “for purposes of prostitution”, in a landmark ruling.
Justice Luke Malaba
(File Photo) Justice Luke Malaba

THE Constitutional Court (ConCourt) yesterday outlawed the arrest of sex workers on charges of loitering “for purposes of prostitution”, in a landmark ruling.

BY STAFF REPORTER

The ruling followed an application filed by nine Harare women who argued that their arrest in March last year and prosecution on charges of soliciting for prostitution contravened Section 49(1)(b) of the Constitution.

They also argued that it was a violation of their fundamental right to the protection of the law as guaranteed by Section 56(1) of the same charter.

Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba read the order which was granted by consent by ConCourt judges.

The court ordered the permanent stay of prosecution of the women who were arrested in the capital in March 2014.

The women were represented by Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara and David Hofisi of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

In their application, the women argued that the crime of soliciting required allegations of an act and a person so acted upon rather than the mere fact of being found at a street corner or being a woman in the central business district at night.

“The ruling is a very important development as the State has now conceded that it cannot arrest women arbitrarily for being in some places at certain hours alone,” Zhuwarara said.

“In the past, women were simply arrested in what we can say was profiling without really establishing the facts of the crimes alleged.”

Police often embark on regular raids targeting women patronising leisure spots in towns and cities across the country.

Commercial sex work is outlawed in Zimbabwe, but it is largely acknowledged that the economic meltdown has drawn thousands of women into the “world’s oldest profession”.

Bulawayo East MP Thabitha Khumalo (MDC-T) has often been ridiculed for campaigning for the decriminalisation of sex work in Zimbabwe.