Sex workers in Zimbabwe’s second largest city have challenged the government to decriminalise sex work saying it is their livelihood.
This came up at a workshop organised by the Sexual Rights Centre (SRC) which was held at Bulawayo Club on Thursday.
Practitioners in the trade — regarded as the world’s oldest profession — whose names have been withheld for fear of stigmatisation, told NewsDay on the sidelines of the workshop they were advocating for the decriminalisation of their profession as this would assist in the protection of their rights.
“We are at risk of rape and abuse and we wish the government could enact laws and include them (laws) in the Constitution and these laws should be affirmative and not infringe upon our rights.
“We are not prostitutes, neither are we ‘small houses’ who destroy marriages or engage in ‘relationships’ with married people.
We are in a business transaction of money for sex,” one sex worker said.
The women, who are national coordinators for sex workers in the country, said they were advocating for sex work to be recognised in the Constitution so that their right to life is not infringed upon.
“If sex workers are being murdered, some denied practice of their jobs, we are at a high risk of being deprived the right to food because we depend on sex work for financial gain. However, if police arrest us, our right to employment and shelter will be taken away and our children will be deprived of education because this is how we make a living, like any other worker,” another one said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Contacted for comment, Health and Child Welfare minister Henry Madzorera told NewsDay “sex work” was illegal in Zimbabwe.
He said proposals to legalise sex work were a moral issue that society needed to thoroughly debate. “Sex work which I prefer to call ‘prostitution,’ if recognised would not increase the number of people infected with HIV and Aids, especially if complemented with adequate programmes.
Because these people have been there since the biblical times and they do not emit diseases.
Diseases are there and they require people to be careful. In some countries that have legalised prostitution statistics have not revealed that since the legalisation of prostitution, Aids levels have increased,” Madzorera said.
The sex workers said they condemned the clinical procedures where they were required to bring their partners when going for sexually transmitted disease tests at clinics or hospitals.
“We do not spread Aids. We carry our tools (condoms) with us,” one of the representatives of the sex workers said. Madzorera said clinical services were rendered to everyone without descrimination.
The spokesperson for the SRC, Mojalifa Mokoele, said the organisation believed in the right to bodily integrity without discrimination of the minority and marginalised groups such as sex workers, lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, transgender and intersexuals (LGBTIs).
“We wish the government could recognise minority rights and make laws that do not discriminate against these groups. Human rights are a need and if sex work sustains families, then sex workers should not be harassed,” he said.
