Court favours 19 sex workers
The High Court in Zomba yesterday ruled in favour of 19 sex workers whose case was brought to the court for review after the Dedza Fourth Grade Magistrate’s Court convicted and fined them K7 000 each for living on earnings from prostitution.
The 19 were arrested in Dedza in February this year during a police raid. They appeared in court in the same month and were convicted on February 25 2016.
Delivering the judgement in a jam-packed courtroom, High Court Judge Zione Ntaba ordered that the conviction and fine be set aside and the K7 000 fine each sex worker paid to the court be refunded.
Ntaba said after listening to submissions, it was clear that the arrest of the 19 was unconstitutional, biased and was carried out to embarrass and harass them.
The judge also said she found the proceedings of the Dedza Fourth Grade Magistrate’s Court null and void because the court had no jurisdiction to hear such a case whose maximum sentence is 24 months imprisonment.
“The lack of jurisdiction is so glaring and cannot be corrected by the Criminal Procedures and Evidence Code. A court of fourth grade cannot try a case whose maximum sentence is 24 months,” she said.
The judge also faulted the smaller court for trying all the 19 individuals in one case despite that they were arrested at different times and at different places.
Other issues raised were why the 19 took a unanimous plea when the court was supposed to obtain individual pleas of guilty or not guilty; why the court did not explain the ingredients of the offence to each of the 19 sex workers as well as why the State gave no reasons why male counterparts, who were found at the same place with some of the women, were not arrested.
While accepting that prostitution continues to bring intense debate on how to address it, Justice Ntaba said hotels, inns, rest houses and motels are not meant for men only, but for both men and women.
Speaking in an interview after the judgement, Dedza sex workers chairperson Alice Matambo expressed happiness with the ruling.
“We are very happy with the judgment delivered today. Apart from that it has vindicated us, it has also given us insights into what to answer to law enforcers whenever we are arrested,” she said.
The 19 women took the review application to the High Court in Zomba with support from Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (Salc).
This is not the first time for a court to rule in favour of sex workers as in May 2015, the High Court in Blantyre also ruled in favour of 11 sex workers who were subjected to a mandatory HIV test in Mwanza in 2011.
The court ordered that they be compensated.n
