South Africa’s jails watchdog and prison officials have locked horns in a public row over proposals to allow consensual sex behind bars.

The Department of Correctional Services says criminals have no right to demand sex, but the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons (JIP) said in a report this week that sex between inmates was a basic right and could help root out widespread rape and sexual abuse in the country’s prisons.

The report followed a complaint by two male prisoners who were charged with misconduct by authorities after they were caught having sex.

They appealed to the JIP - which oversees the Department of Correctional Services - who ruled in their favor.

JIP attorney Umesh Raga said there were many advantages to the body’s proposal.

“It might allow them (prisoners), like in the rest of society where gays and lesbians can now only openly talk about it ... to come out into the open. Then one can differentiate between those cases where there is consensual and coercive sex,” Raga told Reuters.

He said it might also eliminate the stigma around homosexual sex - a strict taboo in much of South Africa, like in many parts of the continent, despite having one of the world’s most gay-friendly constitutions.

“(In) our country, in our society, wherever people express themselves ... it breaks down stigmatization. It allows a proper debate to take place,” he added.

Analysts say the line between consensual sex and rape is vague in prison, where sexual favors are routinely exchanged for food, cigarettes and other sought-after items.

But they agree that it might help reduce widespread rape and the spread of AIDS - a national problem that has spilled over into the nation’s overcrowded prisons.

South Africa has the world’s biggest HIV/AIDS caseload, with more than 5 million people infected with the virus.

“The pros are that it allows for transparency around safe sex. Prisoners can then talk to social workers about having safe sex,” Rukia Cornelius of the AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign told Reuters Thursday.

But the government insists that sex is a right that should be denied to prisoners. Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the department had yet to study the report but had a clear view on the issue.

“We believe it cannot be claimed as a right by people who have been sentenced because what actually happens when you are sentenced (is) there are certain rights and privileges which you lose as a normal law abiding citizen,” he said.