Number 16 April/May, 2000 |
What's in the News?the LRF Newsletter |
Police clamp down on brothels
He said Zambian law does not allow the operations of brothels, hence the need for the Police to start clamping down on people operating them. He added that it is an offence for any one to operate brothels, because brothels contribute to the high level of prostitution, which should not be accepted. “Police will soon start arresting people found to be operating brothels as the police service has embarked on a programme to ensure that people found promoting prostitution are arrested,” he said. Kajoba urged the community to fully participate in informing the police or the Lusaka City Council (LCC) if they know houses that operate as brothels. “This is a move that would benefit the society at large, hence the community should help by just informing the authorities,” he said. Police have already started arresting security guards in Lusaka’s industrial areas who offer their premises as sex dens in the night to be used by prostitutes, with the security guards charging K2000 for use of the premises, he revealed. It was recently reported that most of the companies that are near night clubs in the industrial area are used as sex dens by sex workers who later pay the security guards after using the premises. Police officers on night patrol have been instructed to arrest girls who parade in the streets in the night. The provision of the penal code makes it illegal for a woman or man to parade or loiter in the streets in the night with the aim of enticing or luring members of the public, he said. Lusaka City Council public relations manager, Daniel M’soka, also condemned and warned people operating brothels to refrain from the act as the law would take its course when they are booked. He said that LCC would work hand in hand with the police to clamp down on people operating brothels, as the city council has no capacity to carry out the work. “The police have done a good job especially on the streets, where they have been arresting people found parading half naked and I hope they would also do the same even to people operating brothels as there are reports that brothels are on the increase,” said M’soka. Recently, sex workers on streets have been calling for an organisation to spearhead and protect their interests. The move, which was condemned by several people saying it was wrong to legalise prostitution due to the high levels of the deadly disease, HIV/AIDS, and other sexual related diseases, met with open hostility from the authorities. But some girls found soliciting for sex on Lusaka’s Bwinjimfumu Road said the authorities needed to face reality. “What do they think we are going to eat? Before they start talking about chasing us they should think of where we are going to go. This is also our country. Some of us had no other option but to come here after our parents died and there was no one left to support us. If they build schools for us we will leave the streets,” said Emma, who was reluctant to give her full name. But it seems the attraction of the streets is growing by the day as police report more and more people becoming involved in the illegal trade. Brothels, which before were confined to the high density areas for fear of police raids, are now appearing in low density areas of Kabulonga and even in the central business district around Lusaka where business flourishes by word of mouth.
| Front page | LRF opens centre in Livingstone | Letters to the Editor | Need to protect ZAmbian women & girls | Corporal Punishment still alive | Seven years of service, the LRF story | Mobile courts suggested | Children in crises offered helping hand | Around the centres | Know your rights | Government sued over Police mistake | Police clump down on brothels | Public health & you |
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The
Police Service will soon start arresting people operating brothels in
the city as prostitution in Zam- bia is a criminal offence, Police Service
Spokesman Lemmy Kajoba, told the Legal Resource Foundation (LRF) in an
interview recently.