How Zim Women Suffer Sexual Abuse In Botswana

By Chandapiwa Baputaki
Staff Writer | Monday December 10, 2007 00:00

Their lives revolve around running away from the police. They are Zimbabweans in Botswana. Some would surrender themselves to the police if they have given up all hope with the intention of being deported back home.

While in their search for the 'piece jobs' like washing for families, sweeping the yards and doing any menial tasks, Zimbabwean women face the worst sexual abuses at the hands of Batswana men or male residents. 'If you are employed as a maid or have been offered a piece job, as soon as the wife or partner leaves, the men would literary force themselves on you telling you how they love you and how useless their partners are. It is sickening,' said one Faith Gumbiti who has been travelling to and from Gaborone since 1998 in search of piece jobs. 

She told Monitor that the men often take advantage of Zimbabwean women with the thinking that they are desperate.

She stated that for a long time, she has encountered the same lusty behaviour from different men. A few months ago, she was nearly raped by a man who tried to force himself on her on a couch without using a condom.

'They do this fully aware that we would be scared to tell their wives or partners who may take it the wrong way. Most of these (Zimbabwean) women would just keep quiet opting to take the money and leave never to come back to that house again,' she said. She revealed that such sexual abuse and harassment are rampant in high class residential areas and from rich and respected men. 

She said when she refused a certain man's advances, he started talking bad about her to his wife so that she could fire her.

'The wife not knowing what was happening behind her back could not understand why he wanted me fired and so she told me her husband's concerns. I told her that it will be better if I just leave and I left,' she said. She revealed that some women call their police friends to harass Zimbabweans to avoid paying for services rendered.

'In these cases maybe it would be plaiting hair and as soon as you are about to finish the job, they would call and soon after you see the police coming to harass you,' Gumbiti said. She stated that it has become a tradition that after finishing piece jobs, police officers are called to harass them so that they are not paid. Those who do this know that the Zimbabweans are in the country as illegal immigrants. 

The Zimbabwean women cannot report the sexual abuse they suffer because they would be detained and deported for flouting immigration and labour laws.

They cannot report the cases to the partners of the men because they would be fired from their jobs. Illegal immigrants' problems are never over and they are more often faced with so many challenges without any way out.