Women push for criminalisation of sexual harassment

WOMEN in Bulawayo have called for the enforcement of the law that criminalises sexual harassment saying the scourge is now prevalent in society.

This came out of a public hearing on sexual harassment and the law held jointly by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and Women Affairs, Gender, Community and Enterprises Development.

The public hearings are a response to Emthonjeni Women’s Forum petition to Parliament calling for the amendment of the Sexual Harassment Act.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare chairperson Emma Huni Ncube said the joint committees wanted to assess the prevalence of sexual harassment among women.

A participant, Nobubele Sihlola, said women wanted sexual harassment to be criminalised.

She said the Sexual Rights Act should be criminalising sexual harassment.

The participants said victims should be protected, including whistleblowers, as people are scared to report for fear of what will happen to them.

They said it should be clearly stated how the victims and people who witnessed this will be protected.

Another participant, Emaculate Chingwere, added that sexual harassment could destroy women’s careers. She said sexual harassment was prevalent, hence the need to amend the Labour Act, which she believes is vague.

Chingwere said it’s just one line spelling out what sexual harassment is, but sexual harassment has the potential to destroy people’s careers and lives.

There is need to train police officers on sexual harassment.

The Labour Act should have a dispute resolution mechanism.

Many cases are either going unreported or unresolved because there are no clear dispute resolution mechanisms.

When you go to the police, the cases are being changed to assault, but it’s not assault, its sexual harassment and it’s also gender-based violence, so it should be treated as such.

There should be a national policy on violence and harassment, not just at the workplace.

Police need to be trained on how to handle such cases.

There is also a need to start educating children about sexual harassment at school.