Male bosses in Swaziland
demand sexual favours from their domestic workers, a new report reveals.
Many women quit their jobs
rather than give themselves up for sex.
The information comes from Women
and Law in Southern Africa - Swaziland (WLSA) where these cases were reported.
The Swazi
Observer reported on Thursday (14 September 2017), 43 cases of
exploitation against domestic workers had been reported to WLSA in the past
three months.
The reported cases include
sexual abuse, not being released on off-days, working extremely hard with no
specific time to knock off and being called names.
The Observer reported, ‘Late last month, a domestic worker, Gugu
Hlatjwako endured five hours of torture allegedly by her employer who is said
to have used a live electric cable while interrogating her for alleged theft.’
Sexual abuse of women by
employers is not uncommon in Swaziland.
In July 2016 it was reported that women temporary employees at
Swaziland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) had allegedly been forced to have
sex with their bosses to keep their jobs.
The women were engaged in the Swaziland Population and Housing Census
and the Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Surveys, according to a
report in the Observer on Saturday
newspaper (2 July 2016). It said senior employees who were employed on a
permanent basis demanded sexual favours from the temporary workers if they
wanted to keep their jobs.
An unnamed source told the newspaper, ‘The CSO bosses are taking
advantage of the female staff. They have wives yet they use their power to have
sex with the defenceless young girls so they can keep their jobs.’
Physical and sexual abuse has been prevalent in Swaziland’s textile
industry for years. In July 2014 a survey of
the Swaziland textile industry undertaken by the Trades Union
Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) revealed workers were subjected to harsh and
sometimes abusive conditions, many of the kingdom’s labour laws were routinely
violated by employers, and union activists were targeted by employers for
punishment.
More than 90 percent of workers surveyed reported being punished by
management for making errors, not meeting quotas or missing shifts. More than
70 percent of survey respondents reported witnessing verbal and physical abuse
in their workplace by supervisors.
Commenting
on the survey, the American labour federation AFL-CIO said, ‘Some
workers reported that supervisors slap or hit workers with impunity. In one
example, a worker knocked to the ground by a line manager was suspended during
an investigation of the incident while the line manager continued in her job.
‘Women reported instances of sexual harassment, as well. Several workers
said they or other contract (temporary) workers were offered a permanent job in
exchange for sex.’
University students are also not immune from sexual abuse. In November
2012 it was reported at a Colloquium on Sexual Harassment in Higher Learning
Institutions held at the University of Swaziland that some male lecturers
demanded sex in return for good grades.
See also
SWAZI
TEXTILE WORKERS EXPLOITED
PARENTS
TRADE OWN GIRLS FOR SEX
SOLDIERS
SEX OF FOOD WITH GIRLS, 14
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/soldiers-sex-for-food-with-girls-14.html
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