Legalising sex work in Botswana

| Friday January 21, 2011 00:00

Picture a sex worker being picked up at her spot or house by a client who is the man who has offered to pay for her services. They get into his car and drive away and maybe it is just early evening. He knows exactly what he wants to do with her but she does not know. She thinks he is just one of many clients who wants to have sex with her because he is not getting enough at home. He drives away into the dark and a bit out of town.

The two are the only ones aware of the events that take place there but the unfortunate part is that she will not be home anytime soon after being dumped into a thicket at the outskirts of the city. She has bruises all over her face, her body and bite marks on her neck. The people who assist her want to know what has happened but she tells them she only needs a lift into town but will find her own way home. She arrives home and narrates what happened to her roommates who are in the same business.

They advise her to go and report to the police because sex work is legal in the country and that the culprit would be arrested and brought to book. She refuses because she is not  proud of what she is doing and has always known that he was a married man. She does not want her family back home to know how she has been earning her living. She thinks about how she would narrate the story to the police officers that have a tendency of laughing when women who have been physically abused report their cases.

'It is not like the society in this country has sanctioned sex work to be legalised. There has been no comprehensive study done in the country except two researches that were done in 2007 and 2009, which were qualitative views on the rights of sex workers,' said a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Policy at the UB.

The Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) early this year called for the decriminalisation of sex work because its practice underground exacerbates the spread of HIV and AIDS.  Briefing the Parliamentary HIV/AIDS Committee orientation session attended by policy makers and stakeholders in the anti-HIV and AIDS war, BONELA Sex Work Advocacy Project officer and Training Coordinator, Anna Mmolai-Chalmers said lack of specific legislation that prohibits sex work hampers access to prevention and treatment and it exposes sex workers to countless forms of abuse and harassment.

However, Dr Keitseope Nthomang explained that sex work in this country is not professional as the people involved practice it occasionally and there is no census on the number of those selling their bodies. 'It is not a big problem that would call for legalising but we know that the reality is that it happens,' he said. He said if legalised it would lead to more exploitation of women as they will be seen as commodities that can be bought.

Dr Nthomang said there are many reasons why women sell their bodies for money, however there are many government programmes that those women could use to get out of poverty. 'The answer on why it happens lies with those selling and buying but to legalise it would just be to satisfy the weaknesses of the human being,' he said.

He stated that he understands the human rights part as much as the legal aspect that the women in the business need to approach the law authorities freely if they have not been paid for services rendered. 'Is law the solution here?' he quizzed explaining that the country needs to correct the fundamentals and the society should reject the profession outright just as the government has had a consensus that alcohol was a bad thing. 'I am worried that most organisations want to copy what is happening in other countries but that is not enough justification to have sex work in a small country such as this one,' Dr Nthomang said.

When reached Member of Parliament for Mahalapye East and Assistant Minister of Local Government Botlogile Tshireletso supports the legalisation of sex work because she says it would curb cases where women are abused physically after being used sexually. 'We know for a fact that these women fall prey to all sorts of physical and sexual abuse but if the profession was legalised and they work from a protected area it would be easy to track down the abusers or those who would have gone off without paying for the services,' she said. Tshireletso compared selling sex to married men who keep concubines whom they meet privately. 'Such professions if legalised could be done privately just as married people are doing with their concubines,' she said.

Nkaikela Youth Group is a NGO targeting female sex workers and their clients. According to the Director, Phenyo Gaotlhoboge they have peer education which is strategic in that they use former sex workers to educate the workers on using protection to stop HIV, how to protect themselves from danger and the possible ways of exit.

'We have income generating projects and those who wish to exit can join those programmes. We also have a donor who finances these projects for those women who want to exit the profession,' she said adding that they work closely with the police for them to appreciate the reality of sex workers and health workers in dealing with sex workers who might frequent their stations with repeated Sexual Transmitted Diseases.

'Every individual has a right to their bodies and has choices on how to use their bodies. I however don't think there is enough ground work that has been done in Botswana to guide the process of legalising sex work in terms of the pros and cons expecially in reducing the prevalence of HIV,' Gaothoboge said. 'The very sex workers that we are advocating for are not proud of what they are doing and given an opportunity they would exit. We cannot say that just because legalising the profession has worked in certain countries it would work in Botswana,' she said.