Police officers demanding sex from arrested prostitutes

Police chiefs have launched a countrywide investigation into junior police officers who are said to be in the habit of demanding sex from arrested prostitutes.

Low-ranking police officers on night patrols in several urban centres are said to be targetting prostitutes at nightclubs and other red-light areas from whom they demand sex or money.

So rife is the practice that senior police officers have decided to probe the rogue cops.

In separate interviews at a Bulawayo drop-in centre where they receive counselling, health care and education, sex workers complained that they were being sexually abused by police officers.

The prostitutes said junior police officers who were arresting them at night were demanding sex or spot payments ranging between US$5 and US$10 in exchange for freedom.

National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said a thorough investigation would be carried out to flush out the bad elements.

“We do not condone such behaviour in the police force and if we have such rogue elements in the system, they will be weeded out.

“Investigations will be carried out in urban areas countrywide because soliciting for sex from those people they should arrest is unacceptable.

“The police force has a code of conduct and such practices are a form of corruption. Disciplinary action will be taken against those found on the wrong side of the law,” said Snr Ass Comm Bvudzijena.

He urged prostitutes to come forward and identify officers who would have demanded money or sex in exchange for freedom.

“Those ladies of the night should take down the officers’ force numbers and report them because such behaviour is not allowed in the system,” he said.

Sources in the police’s department for legal rights said they had received reports from human right organisations on the behaviour by police officers who were sexually harassing prostitutes.

Prostitution is illegal in Zimbabwe but the country is recording an increase in the number of sex workers in the main urban areas, growth points and rural service centres.

Health and Child Welfare Minister, Dr Henry Madzorera, has said proposals to legalise sex work were a moral issue that society needs to thoroughly debate