In an earlier case of Namunjembo and Others v Commanding Officer, Windhoek Prison and another, the prisoners were chained because one of them was allegedly planning to escape from prison and the others had previously escaped from prison. They remained in chains for approximately six months. The prison authorities removed the chains after Namunjembo and the others applied to the High Court. The applicants said that being thus chained was contrary to Article 8 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court noted that imprisonment necessarily affected some of a prisoner's rights, including the right to dignity. This did not, however, mean that a prisoner did not have the right to dignity. To chain a person "was a humiliating experience which reduces the person placed in irons to the level of a hobbled animal whose mobility is limited". It was also a strong reminder of the time when Africans were sold into slavery in chains. The court therefore decided that it was at least degrading treatment to put chains on prisoners and was therefore contrary to Articles 8(2) (a) and (b) of the Constitution. The effect of this ruling was that prison authorities could not in future chain prisoners. 7.2 Slavery and forced labour In terms of the Labour Act of 2007, forced labour amounts to a criminal offence. Forced labour is defined asi) any work or service performed or rendered involuntarily by a person under threat of any penalty or punishment; ii) any work performed by an employee’s child under the age of 18 years in terms of an agreement between employer and employee; iii) any work performed by a person because he/she is subject to the control or supervision of a traditional chief or headman. However, Article 9(3) of the Namibian Constitution excludes certain labour from the expression “forced labour” e.g. any labour required to be performed in terms of a sentence or order of a Court, by members of the defence force, police or prison service, or labour required to be performed in a period of public emergency or calamity. - 27 -