Women challenge loitering laws in court

A GROUP of Harare women has approached the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of Section 81 of the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act which makes it a criminal offence for women to loiter in the streets soliciting for intimacy.

The Harare Women Empowerment Network, through its lawyer Mr Lawman Chimuriwo of Lawman Chimuriwo Attorneys, argues that police were just arresting women in the Avenues area of Harare and other parts of the town without proof that they will be soliciting for the purposes of prostitution.

The group wants the court to bar the police from enforcing the laws and to remove them from the statutes for non-compliance with the Constitution.

HWEN alleges that the law is discriminatory along gender lines as only women are arrested for the offence.

It is also argued that the law infringes on the women's freedom of movement and assembly as it restricts them from freely moving and associating with friends.

Women, according to the application, are randomly arrested on mere subjective suspicion, which constitutes a violation of their right to personal security in terms of Section 52 of the Constitution.

The women's right to human dignity, according to the application, is also being trampled upon in that the police can search bags for condoms to try to establish a case of soliciting for prostitution.

Section 81(2) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act reads:

"Any person who publicly solicits another person for the purposes of prostitution shall be guilty of soliciting and liable to a fine not exceeding level five or imprisonment for a period of not exceeding six months or both."

Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri deposed an affidavit opposing the application saying the police are simply enforcing the laws of the country.

The case arose on July 18 last year, when 19 members of HWEN were rounded up by police in the Avenues area of Harare and parts of Chitungwiza in an operation code-named "Zvanyanya".

They were picked up from the streets, bars, lodges, leisure spots while some from the Avenues were raided from their respective flats.

One of the women, Ms Tatenda Mukwezaramba, said police on that day were violent and determined to deal with women only.

"It was glaringly apparent that the police were only targeting women on this particular operation.

"Even in the testimony of one policewoman who testified in the ongoing trial of applicant members, she did not know what the charge meant but was instructed to only arrest women standing or walking in streets whom police suspected of soliciting.

"She further testified that she did not know what soliciting meant," reads Ms Mukwezaramba's affidavit.

Opposing the affidavit Commissioner-General Chihuri denied targeting women only in the police operations.

"It is denied that the police target women who will be in their places of business, residential places especially those living in flats.

"Those found in bars and other places of leisure who will be soliciting will be subject to arrest as they will be violating the law.

"The police operations deal with persons and it is only that women constitute a larger percentage of those arrested for soliciting. There is no targeting of women only …" Comm-Gen Chihuri said.

Comm-Gen Chihuri said acts of prostitution were rampant in the Avenues and the residents were complaining about the conduct of the sex workers.

"People residing in flats in the Avenues complain of nefarious activities of persons performing their evil acts in broad daylight and discarding their tools of the trade everywhere.

"There is need for public order and public morality to be preserved for the benefit of minors and one way of doing it is to invoke the provisions of the law against violators," he stated.

Comm-Gen Chihuri said the police were empowered under the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act to arrest, detain and search whenever necessary.

He also questioned Ms Mukwezaramba's legal standing in deposing an affidavit on behalf of the group.