th an e wi
women use Harare Gardens where they have ample time to make up their faces, exchange ‘fashionable’ clothes, and other toolkits (condoms). From there, the ladies decimate to different hiking venues ranging from street corners, brothels, lodges and night clubs where they get most clients. “At times if push comes to shove, kombi and taxi drivers become targets,” she said. I followed Ruvimbo to Club Liz as others proceeded to the infamous Chinese outing, Super Label club, Synage, Tropicana, and Barcelona, only to cite a few but popular hangouts. At clubs, the ‘girls have regular customers. At the door, we had no problems with the doorman since ladies are granted free entrance. This experience rekindled a longing for my high school days when we used to read “Mapenzi” by Ignatius Mabasa and how he kept reiterating that Harare, hamurarwi uchitsvaga mari. Such daring tales of town life after dark had always been myths till I braved all my fears to meet the ‘girls’. I noted with grave discomfort that most ladies of the night that throng down town hangouts do so out of desperation. I realised that most vendors turn to prostitution to recover losses incurred from municipal police r aids. This is mainly because these women are uneducated and do not have access to financial loans to start small business ventures. Most of them live in urban slums. Research has shown that more than 50 percent of slums population is uneducated. In most of such disorganized settlements, where the rate of unemployment is alarming, girls resort to prostitution to fend for themselves, as their male counterparts resort to stealing. Research has shown that more than 60 percent of females in urban slums are either divorced, single mothers or small houses, whereas 90 percent have no formal employment. Food for thought! TP
Culture, Health & Society
sex worker
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine
February 2013
Page 53