adminPatrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
AN uneasy truce existed between the police and prostitutes in Bulawayo at the weekend following the Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling barring the police from arresting them on suspicion of soliciting for paid sex without a man to confirm that such solicitation took place.
The Chronicle visited night spots such as Palace Hotel, Club forty 40, The Lounge, Lagondola, Manor Hotel and prostitutes were standing outside these spots freely.
Normally, they would play cat and mouse with the police.
Along Samuel Parirenyatwa Street and 3rd Avenue, prostitutes in short dresses were standing at street corners looking for possible clients.
Prostitutes who spoke to The Chronicle said they were “conducting their business” freely, but added that before the Constitutional Court ruling, it had been a very difficult period for them.
They said it was dangerous because at times they failed to identify a potential client since police officers would use private vehicles to raid them.
“So if any vehicle stops now, I’m not afraid of anything since I know that the police aren’t arresting us anymore,” said a prostitute who called herself Memory Sibanda.
Outside Manor Hotel, the news crew witnessed four police officers booking a Commuter omnibus driver for an unconfirmed offence while prostitutes stood a stone’s throw away unconcerned with the presence of the law enforcement agents.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo could not be reached immediately.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the police officers said they only raided prostitutes when there was an operation.
He said the prostitutes should not draw comfort from the weekend lull because once an order comes from ZRP Headquarters ordering an operation to weed out prostitutes, they will arrest them.
“We’re here patrolling as we normally do and we’re not targeting prostitutes. But once we’ve an operation, once there’s a radio to that effect, we’ll arrest them because we don’t get orders from the Constitutional Court but from the Commissioner General (Augustine Chihuri),” he said.
On Thursday last week, the Constitutional Court outlawed the arrest of women on charges of soliciting for paid sex in the absence of men confirming they were offered the service for a fee. Women had for long been apprehended in various police operations and charged with loitering for the purposes of prostitution.
Granting an application by nine women contesting their arrest, Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with eight other judges of the Constitutional Court, declared the arrest and prosecution unconstitutional.
The nine were arrested on March 17 last year in the Avenues area in Harare by police during an operation code-named “No to Robberies and Prostitution”.
Online Reporter