Swaziland’s police chief Isaac
Magagula has denied his officers use sex workers without paying. His comment
came when he said prostitutes were an ‘infestation of our cities’.
Police have been clamping down against female sex workers across the kingdom. At least 30 have appeared in court and been given jail sentences or fines.
Police have been clamping down against female sex workers across the kingdom. At least 30 have appeared in court and been given jail sentences or fines.
In a statement published in
Swazi media on Sunday (13 August 2017) National Commissioner of Police Isaac
Magagula said it was wrong to say that sex workers, ‘are targeted because of
sour grapes that police officers are failing to pay for services rendered’.
He did not state that
police officers did not use the services of prostitutes. Prostitution is
illegal in Swaziland.
There is a lot of evidence
that policeman in Swaziland use prostitutes. One of the few surveys done on female
sex workers listed police officers among their ‘commonest
clients.’
Separately, in 2010, Alec
Lushaba, then editor of the Weekend
Observer newspaper in Swaziland, wrote, ‘In a country
known for its skyrocketing HIV and AIDS rates, conservatism, Christianity and
traditional mores, it may come as a surprise that the abuse and rape of sex
workers in Swaziland at the hands of police is a growing and widespread
problem.
‘Sex work, known as one of
the oldest trades, is still illegal in the country, yet sex workers have
reported targeted campaigns of rape and violence at the hands of Swazi police.’
In an article published by
Gender Links, Lushaba wrote, ‘A recent report by Swaziland Action
Group Against Abuse (SWAAGA), in partnership with other local organisations,
noted: “It is not just that they are arrested, to a greater or lesser degree
they are forced by police to comply with demands for free sex or sex in
exchange for not being arrested.”
‘27 percent of the sex
workers have at some point been arrested by state police for loitering. 60
percent of those arrested end up being sexually and physically abused by the
police.’
See also
See also
SWAZI POLICE RAPE SEX WORKERS
POLICE DRIVE AGAINST SEX WORKERS
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