The overall impression is that these laws are used to target people regarded as ‘undesirable’ and ‘unwanted’, not because they pose a threat to public safety, but rather because they are powerless and ‘do not belong’.  These notions of a particular social order hark back to colonial times.

The problem is enabled on the one hand by a myriad of laws, municipal by-laws and petty offences, and on the other hand, notions of social order that have their roots in the colonial era. Many of these petty offences were enforced by colonial powers to control African populations and protect their economic interests in the African colonies. These laws remained intact in many post-colonial African jurisdictions despite former colonial powers either having abolished it or making it non-arrestable offences in their own jurisdictions, (e.g. United Kingdom and France). These laws and the threat of their enforcement has in many jurisdictions become a source of income for officials through extortion.