The Need to Change Some Laws

There was a news item on one of the local Radio Stations on the Copperbelt recently. It was about a minor who was nearly defiled by a youth in one of the townships.

Twelve year old , Angela (not her real name) was sent by her mother to go and purchase some groceries from the market.

The market is a distance away from the girl's home. She had to walk on a footpath, that passes through a small patch of bush and grass for about three hundred metres, before she could reach the market.

As she was walking on the footpath, she sensed that someone was following her.

When she looked back she saw a young man of about twenty five hurrying to catch up with her.

Sensing danger, she started running away from him. He soon caught up with her and forcefully dragged her into a nearby bush.

At this moment, the girl started shouting for help at the top of her voice.

The brute forced her to the ground and was soon on top of her. He started to undo his zipper whilst attempting to stop her from shouting by gagging her with a piece of cloth.

He was about to defile her when three men and a woman, who had heard the shouts of the girl, arrived on the scene.

They pounced on the young man and dragged him away from the minor before he could do any harm to her.

He was slapped hard on the face by the three men.

As a result of the noise from the commotion, a crowd soon grew around the scene.

Some people were about to lynch the young man for his evil intentions.

After some heated debate amongst the people in the crowd, a decision was made to take him and the girl to the nearest police station.

The mother to the girl was informed about the incident. She rushed to the police station in great shock.

The young man was locked up in the police cells and the girl's mother was told to take her to hospital for a medical report.

The medical report indicated that the girl was not sexually violated in any way.

The young man was released from police custody the following day, after paying an admission of guilty charge.

The people of the township were incensed with the police decision of merely charging the young man with "conduct likely to cause breach of public peace".

The following day, a group of angry people from the neighbourhood, where the girl stays, converged on the police station to protest.

They demanded to know why the young man was freed.

They had expected him to be locked up in remand prison awaiting court trial for an offence of attempted defilement of a minor.

The police allegedly told them that there is no such criminal offence as "attempted defilement" !

The crowd was not happy with this explanation. They soon became unruly and were about to riot.

They were warned that their action could result in them being locked up for "conduct likely to cause the breach of public peace."

When one ponders over this case, it looks very unfair to the poor girl and her mother.

Did it require the offending man to actually sexually penetrate the girl for him to be charged with the intended criminal offence ?

Why is it that attempted murder is a criminal offence whilst attempted rape and attempted defilement are not ?

Were the police in order to charge the man with an offence of conduct likely to cause breach of public peace ?

If the family of the minor decided to sue the man, what is the appropriate law that would apply?

It is high time our law makers made a review of some of the laws that are not protecting the rights of vulnerable people like women and children.

Levelling The Playing Ground

In any game of sports, such as soccer and rugby , the playing ground where the opposing teams play against each other must be level. This way each team is given no fair advantage against their opponents.

In our society , there is a policy that there shall be equal opportunity to all in all fields of human endeavour, irrespective of race, colour , religion or gender.

Wars between nations have been waged, in the past and nowadays, as a consequence of differences in race , colour or religion. As far as one recalls, no war has ever been officially declared as a result of difference in gender !

8 March of each year has been declared International Women's Day. The theme of this year's celebration is equal opportunity for all.

Our womenfolk has a desire to be given the same chance to participate in the human activities of our societies on equal terms with men.

Many countries have taken steps to change laws that discriminated against women in the past. These include equal pay for equal qualification and effort.

The tendency has been that women have been marginalised by being used as tools of exploitation by the men folk.

A typical example here in Africa is that of some of them being made to dance for political leaders at state functions. The list of the exploitation of women by men is endless.

One just hopes that the women will take up the challenge and participate more in all fields of human activity on equal terms with men. They should not allow themselves to be exploitated by the current men dominated society.