Africa-Press – Malawi. Zodwa Wabantu , a South African media personality, socialite and dancer , who was expected to perform at Dominic Hotel on 11th June 2022, has been banned by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Wildlife. Zodwa is well known for performing on stage without panties. She was also banned in Zambia and Zimbabwe for the very same reason.
Nudity lovers have expressed discontent with Zodwa’s ban citing that the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife was supposed to impose strict restrictions on Zodwa without banning her. Little do they know that such effort to negotiate with Zodwa in Zimbabwe in 2017 failed because she insisted that exposing her nudity is her style of stage performance.
Defenders of nudity went further to justify their lust by parading naked pictures from gulewankulu and Mlakho wa Alhomwe dances. It really boggles my mind with this defence. Displaying nudity in public even for the purposes of preserving culture is not justifiable. And therefore I find it logically unsound to justify immoral acts because they are being tolerated by a few sect of cultural adherents.
Then there are those who seem to be in the elite group who intimate that in modern societies like South Africa and Japan, public nudity is a good entertainment.
To them, censorship infringes the rights of the citizens. However, citizen rights are enshrined in the laws of the land. Do we have laws in Malawi that permit erotic shows, brothels and prostitution? For sure, Malawi is not a lawless country.
Section 145 and 146 of the Malawi Penal Code prohibits a male and female, respectively, from benefitting from the proceeds of prostitution or anything related.
Section 145 says: (1) Every male person who— (a) knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution; or (b) in any public place persistently solicits or importunes for immoral purposes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
Section 146 says: Every woman who knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution, or who is proved to have, for the purpose of gain, exercised control, direction or influence over the
movements of a prostitute in such a manner as to show that she is aiding, abetting or compelling her prostitution with any person, or generally, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour
For sure, Zodwa and the organisers of this nudity show were meant to benefit from this exercise. I have no problem if our laws are changed to accommodate the sale of public nudity and prostitution as long as it is the wish of the majority of Malawians.
Let us be proactive in our endeavor. This is a wake up call to review our laws if the need arises. Let me also take this opportunity to remind our law makers that we have a backlog of outstanding controversial issues that need to be resolved. Reactive and fire fighting approaches will steer us nowhere since Malawi is not a lawless country.
From the public outcry, the following bills need to be tabled with urgency: 1) Making the Anti Corruption Bureau fully independent 2) Legalising Marijuana 3) Legalising abortion 4) Legalising prostitution and public nudity 5) Legalising homosexuality 6) Decentralizing presidential powers.
I am not advocating anything but this is taken from the public outcry. It will be surprising that nudity lovers who are making noise will hibernate in their cocoon when such bills will be deliberated. Let us be proactive in enacting appropriate laws. It does not work the other way round.
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