The Weekend Nation
4 January 2024
By Lloyd Chitsulo
Despite operating in a country where prostitution is not a crime, Malawian sex workers continue to face rampant abuse and exploitation.
What is a crime is earning proceeds out of prostitution. Sadly, sex workers’ cries for help are often met with intimidation, scorn and, worse still, violence.
For 36-year-old Elizabeth (not real name), the experience is all too familiar. She has been in the trade for over 10 years and has encountered some of the worst forms of abuse. “I remember most recently, I met a customer at one of the drinking joints within Blantyre’s Central Business District [CBD]. “We had some drinks together before agreeing to spend the night together. We agreed that he would pay me K30 000. He insisted to pay me in the morning and I trusted him,” she says. But when they woke up in the morning, Elizabeth’s customer claimed he did not have enough money, so he told her to hold on to his mobile phone and that they would meet later in the day within town for him to pay.
They agreed to meet at one of the popular bars, different from the one they spent their good time the previous night. “Around three o’clock, I saw him entering the bar, but with police officers. He approached me and told the police that I had stolen his mobile phone. “I tried to explain to the police officers that the mobile phone was a collateral for a session we had, but the police sided with the customer. It hurt me to the core,” she lamented, her voice laced with frustration.
She was locked up briefly at one of the police stations before being released unconditionally, without any charges. Regardless of the ordeal, Elizabeth continues her sex work because it is what brings food on the table of her two-member family. She says: “I have encountered abuses but this is what keeps me going. I can’t stop. I just hope that relevant stakeholders will move in to safeguard our rights.” But she is not the only sex worker facing abuse both in the streets and in bars.
Thirty-year-old Deborah, on one cold night got picked by an Asian for the night. They settled for K30 000 with a condom and K50 000 without a condom. The two went to the Asian’s house, where five other Asians occupied separate rooms. “We had unprotected sex in the first session and soon afterwards, he left the room and came back with five men. I was afraid. They said I should have sex with each one of them. “There was nothing I could do. I should say they raped me because it was against my wish. After they were done, I could not sleep. The man who took me to the house slept in a separate room and I was all alone,” she says. Around 5 am, the man who initially procured Deborah’s services came back to the room and gave her K30 000, instead of K50 000. He demanded that she leaves before the sun rises. When she protested the amount, considering that she had unprotected sex with the six of them, she claims she was threatened and was forced out of the house. “That situation still traumatises me,” she says.
Deborah has on various occasions met men who ran away from lodges and resthouses without paying her and others that have beaten her, but the encounter with the six Asians haunts her. Similarly, one Mercy found herself in a predicament close to Deborah’s.
“I was taken to a house within Limbe Township by some man who seemed innocent. I trusted this him because we had spent some quality time together drinking, and he bought me meat snacks. “Unfortunately, when I went to his house, I was forced to have a three-some,” she laments.
In the morning, she never bothered to demand money. Instead, she went to lodge a complaint at a nearby police station. Sadly, the police allegedly told her off, because that was the business she opted for. But the abuse does not stop there. The sex workers claim that at public health facilities they are often subjected to humiliating treatment. According to Thandiwe Kaunda, who works with sex workers on a wide-range of issues, including human rights, sex workers are often scolded by healthcare workers. She says: “At times, they take pictures of their private when treating them. Some of such pictures have ended up on social media.” Kasunda says sex workers are not looking for special treatment, but rather, have their rights and dignity respected. “After all, sex work is not illegal in Malawi,” she says. While sex work is not illegal in Malawi, Section 146 of the Penal Code protects them from exploitation. The Section also prohibits living on earnings of prostitution.
In 2016, the High Court of Malawi in Zomba gave clarity on this particular Section in its ruling in a case in which 14 sex workers sued the Malawi Government for compensation and damages for violation of their constitutional rights. The sex workers were arrested in 2009 in Mwanza and were subjected to HIV tests whose results were read out in an open court. This appalled the sex workers; hence, suing government for, among others, trauma they suffered as a result of the actions of police and health authorities.
In September 2016, then High Court of Malawi Judge Dorothy Kamanga ruled in favour of the sex workers and subsequently ordered that they be compensated.
In her ruling, Kamanga described the action by police as irrational, unjust, unfair and unreasonable. In their study titled ‘No Justice for the Poor’, Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) and Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) found that poor and marginalised groups often face a lot of discrimination and stigma. These poor and marginalised groups include sex workers, street-connected children, informal traders and members of the LGBTQI community. Among those that were found to discriminate against the marginalised and poor groups include law enforcement agencies, healthcare professionals and community members at large. In the midst of continued abuse of these marginalised groups, in particular sex workers, activists insist Malawians ought to honour what the Constitution stipulates—that human rights must be respected by all.
SALC legal intern Vivian Kasunda says respect for people’s rights is important in any democratic State. She says: “We want to urge law enforcement agencies, community members, healthcare professionals and everybody to protect human rights for all”. CHREAA paralegal and projects coordinator Apatsa Mangwana Mhango echoes Kasunda’s sentiments. “Everybody needs to be treated fairly and without their rights being infringed upon regardless of their background or status in society,” she says.
National Police deputy spokesperson Harry Namwaza says they ensure that people’s rights are not infringed upon when they are carrying out their duties. He says police has a duty to safeguard people’s rights, and that they ensure that everybody is treated fairly regardless of who they are or where they belong.
Ironically, sex workers in the country continue to face abuse and exploitation when Malawi is among countries whose majority populations reject violence against women, according to a recent Afrobarometer report. The report dated November 21 2024, states that 94 out of every 100 Malawians reject violence against woman which is a positive scenario. This means violence against women in Malawi is perceived as
uncommon. Part of the report reads: “Maybe everyday should be a day for the elimination of violence against women.
Kasunda: Sex workers are humiliated.
