ZORORAI NKOMO
It is estimated that Zimbabwe has over 40 000 female sex workers, and among them the HIV prevalence rate is over 40% against the national prevalence rate of 13%.
Sex work and prostitution are terms that are used interchangeably in some communities.
Nevertheless, the majority of Zimbabwean Civil Society Organizations (CSO) prefer to refer to them as sex workers because the term “prostitute” is considered derogatory.
Sex workers fall under the key population category in Zimbabwe.
This means they are a group of people which is vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, sexual abuse, physical, emotional and psychological abuse.
However, although they are grouped as key populations (vulnerable population), the social dimension of our religious and cultural lenses view them as outcasts and people who occupy the lowest rung of social standing.
This societal view towards them makes them vulnerable to sexual trafficking to the extent that even laws turn a blind eye on them.
In the South African landmark court case of S v Dodo, learned Justice Ackermann held that human beings are not commodities to which a price can be attached; they are creatures with inherent worth and infinite worth; they ought to be treated as ends in themselves, never merely as means to an end.
With the same token even a person who is perceived to be an outcast or immoral member of the society, that person must be protected from vagaries of human trafficking.
In Zimbabwe’s HIV and sexual reproductive health rights discourse, the missing link is that sex workers is the group of people vulnerable to human trafficking under the auspices of sex work.
In 2015 the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe handed down a historic judgment which decimalized sex work. In short, this judgment meant that law enforcement agents were no longer allowed to arrest women for selling sex. However, what is important to note is that section 81 of the Criminal Code criminalizes soliciting for the purpose of prostitution.
This judgment was well celebrated by a lot of organizations which are into HIV programming and sexual reproductive health rights.
However, although this historic legal development was celebrated by many people, the side of sexual trafficking of women was not looked at. Some sections of the community now use the auspices of legalization of sex work to exploit vulnerable women in our respective communities.
Over three years ago, research conducted by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) revealed that nearly 60% of women in Zimbabwe were forced to provide sexual favors in exchange for various goods and services such as employment, health care and children placements in schools.
The report went on to reveal that sex has become a currency in most corrupt deals involving women.
Sexual exploitation and harassment has become institutionalized in Zimbabwe.
The simple inference which can be drawn is that if sexual exploitation is heavily institutionalized in Zimbabwe, therefore sexual trafficking of women is also institutionalized in our country.
Trafficking is entrenched and embedded in our community.
What a pathetic and appalling situation facing vulnerable women. This is a sad chapter in the history of women’s right to protection, equality and dignity.
To put this discourse in context let me again reiterate the definition of trafficking in persons or human trafficking.
Article 3 of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime which is notoriously referred to as Palermo Protocol provides that trafficking means “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person”
Furthermore Article 3 of which Zimbabwe is part to provides that the consent of a victim of trafficking in persons is irrelevant where any of the means of coercion mentioned have been used.
The legal definition of the Palermo Protocol is clear that consent cannot be justified in trafficking.
What we are witnessing today in our communities is that women are consenting to be abused under the guise of sex work. Economic situation is coercing them to be victims.
For a decade as a journalist in Zimbabwe, I extensively covered health issues, HIV programming to be specific. I had the opportunity to have heart wrecking discussions with sex workers.
I toured all sex work hotspots in Zimbabwe such as Ngundu in Masvingo Province, Epworth Booster Area in the Dormitory town of Harare, Mbare in Harare, Hopley in Harare East, Mupandawana in Gutu Masvingo Province, Shamva and Mazowe mining communities of Mashonaland Central Province, Shurugwi in Midlands Province just to mention but a few.
In Zimbabwe these mentioned areas are officially declared HIV hotspots where there is a story behind a story.
Sex workers are subjected to deleterious conditions in their line of work. They are being trafficked every day. A lot of young women are being forced into sex work due to rising levels of poverty and inequality, they are becoming victims of sexual trafficking. They do not have a choice. They face torture, physical and emotional abuse from their clients.
Some of their clients demand unprotected sex, but due to vulnerability they give in for the sake of immediate survival. At law procedurally, their conduct appears as if these women are consenting to sex. However, a well calibrated substantive legal analysis clearly shows that there is no consent at all.
These women are being coerced.
The most pathetic development currently obtaining is that other women have the audacity to sexually trafficking fellow young women.
In 2017 I visited Mt Darwin, a growth point in Mashonaland Central Province. What I saw there was disheartening. I met a 19 year old sex worker with two kids.
She was being trafficked by a 68 year old woman. The arrangement was that the old woman was going to provide the room or the base for her to service her clients and in return they were sharing the proceeds of every particular night equally.
This arrangement for this young woman was good and her argument was that sometimes the old lady provides some miniskirts and bikinis for the job for free.
Per night she said the maximum amount she was realizing was US$12.
This means that her take-home amount was US$6 since she had a contractual obligation to share with the provider of the room (base).
When I interviewed the 68 year old woman who was part of the deal, she frankly told me that the deal with the young lady was perfect due to the fact that a lot of men were coming for young women as compared to her.
She referred to herself as a retiree.
From 2017 to 2020 I was in constant communication with this old woman who later succumbed to COVID-19 in late 2020.
Whatever name people want to sanitise sex work in this country, the way it’s happening perfectly complies with the dentition of sexual trafficking.
However, the situation for most women in our country is being worsened by our legal framework which needs to be refocused and recalibrated to fight rampant sexual trafficking in our backyards.
Zororai Nkomo is a Zimbabwean journalist, lawyer and social justice activist. He writes in his own personal capacity. He can be contacted on zoronkomo@gmail.com
