•SOME studies conducted in recent years are crucial to understanding the increasing cases of sexual harassment.

By CHARLES SIMENGWA –
IT may have been reduced to a whirlpool of accusations and counter-accusations, but the red flag on sexual harassment raised by a former female employee of Game Stores in Lusaka should be given serious attention.
The turmoil brewing over the matter is indicative of divided public opinion on sexual harassment at places of work and in learning institutions.
There has been as much support for the former Game Stores Zambia worker, who claims she was dismissed after she turned down sexual advances from a manager, as there are other people vilifying her.
She has been denigrated for what some commentators, particularly on some on-line publications, take to be a failed attempt at manipulating the manager into offering her better job incentives.
The critics have argued that such accusations should be treated with caution as they might have stemmed from ‘sour grapes’.
Their contention is that they have witnessed illicit workplace practices with the full consent of women seeking better opportunities.
Indeed, one cannot expressly dismiss such claims, more so that they are difficult to prove where there is no credible evidence.
In some places where some female employees are believed to have received special attention, or promotion, by way of offering themselves to their supervisors for sexual relationships, such conduct is infamously referred to as ‘office secrets’.
Similarly, there have been disturbing tales of some female students in local colleges and universities who fawn before their lecturers and draw themselves into sexual affairs in exchange for good grades.
This behaviour has helped generate the notion of ‘sexually transmitted results’.
However, there are also accounts of the often surreal and always harrowing fallout many other girls and women have suffered for refusing to succumb to sexual snares.
The central purpose of exposing cases of sexual harassment should, therefore, not be muted by interlopers with unreasoned arguments.
A critical analysis of the matter should instead be encouraged to root out any such illegalities both at places of work and in learning institutions.
Some studies conducted in recent years are crucial to understanding the increasing cases of sexual harassment which have partly been stifled by cultural barriers and the widespread ignorance about the laws on such issues.
As a good example, a case study of selected public and private organisations in Ndola by Precious Zandonda in 2010 showed that sexual harassment was high, with 69 per cent of 160 respondents claiming they had been victims.
According to Ms Zandonda, seventy-five per cent of the respondents were not aware of any policies on sexual harassment at their workplaces. Other women have different views of what constitutes sexual harassment.
“Sexual harassment is a complex challenge, one that is often controversial, and has become a contentious issue not only in Zambia but the world over.
“While there are still no binding international standards that specifically mention sexual harassment, a growing list of countries have taken legislative actions to recognise it as abusive behaviour, and to punish and prevent it,” Ms Zandonda, a University of Zambia student at the time, wrote.
From the standpoint of the International Labour Organisation, sexual harassment is a clear form of gender discrimination based on sex.
It is a manifestation of unequal power relations between men and women, and complaints of the majority of victims have been ignored, trivialised or denied.
These views are corroborated by a recent BBC research that illuminated a similar trend in other African countries.
According to the research, the issue of sexual harassment has been the subject of recent debate across the continent where many women experience unwanted sexual advances in their place of work or study.
Benin’s Parliament just made sexual harassment illegal in schools, at work and in the home. Last month lawmakers in Kenya included a similar ban in their Sexual Offences Bill.
But in order not to treat the offenders unfairly, it is important to draw the line between friendly flirting and sexual harassment, perhaps a situation which has complicated the complaints brought out by some victims.
This too is part of what may be driving the vortex of emotions around the Game Stores revelation.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome or unwanted verbal, non-verbal, physical or visual conduct based on sex or of a sexual nature, the acceptance or rejection of which affects an individual’s employment.”
But whether a situation feels like harassment could be subjective, so how would one define it?
In South Africa, harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act includes both direct and indirect conduct that either causes harm or that inspires the person complaining of harassment to reasonably believe that harm may be caused.
Such conduct includes following, watching, pursuing or accosting of the complainant or someone in a close relationship with the complainant such as a spouse or family member.
According to Louise Bick, a member of Werksmans Attorneys, harassing conduct involve loitering outside or near the building or place where the complainant or related person lives, works, studies or happens to be.
Harassment also includes contact through verbal communication aimed at the complainant.
The Act recognises electronic communication that causes harm or makes the complainant feel in danger of being harmed as harassment.
It mentions several forms of written communication such as letters, packages and e-mails as capable of being contact for the purposes of abuse.
Harassment could include any unwelcome sexual attention from a person who knows or who reasonably knows that such attention is unwelcome.
The Act holds up sexual harassment as also to mean promises of reward for fulfilling a sexual request or punishment for refusing one.
Harm under the Protection from Harassment Act includes an extremely wide range of categories in the form of mental, psychological, physical and economic ruin.
As a safeguard, anyone who believes they are being harassed by another person could thus apply for a protection order under the Act.
Zambia does have legislation on sexual harassment that should be made known to girls and women to help stop abuse in workplaces and learning institutions.
Among its provisions, chapter 15 section 137A of the Penal Code amendment number 15 of 2005 outlines sexual harassment as unsolicited sexual comment, physical contact or other gestures of a sexual nature which one finds objectionable or offensive, causes discomfort in one’s studies or job, and interferes with academic or work performance.
It also involves sexual bribery in the form of soliciting or attempting to solicit sexual activity by promise of reward.
The Penal Code further states that sexual threat or coercion which involves procuring or attempting to procure sexual activity by threat of violence or victimisation passes for sexual harassment.
With increased education on the legislation available in Zambia, alongside other crucial interventions to assist victims, girls and women would be protected from sexual harassment while would-be offenders would have no excuse for not checking their conduct.