Prostitutes Now Charging $1 For One Round

Prostitutes have invaded ghettos where they now openly operate from street corners within the suburbs, a situation that has brought discomf...

Prostitutes have invaded ghettos where they now openly operate from street corners within the suburbs, a situation that has brought discomfort to married women who fear their men might be tempted as the prostitutes are within the vicinity.

The sex vendors, who collect their own lobola ‘fees’ on daily basis, most of them unemployed and desperate youths, have been forced to sell sex on the streets to earn a living, charging anything from $1 per each ejaculation (round).

Competition is so high as older women in the same X-rated profession have to compete with girls as young as 14 who have become a hit with older men.

The news crew recently visited some of the major high density suburbs in Harare and Chitungwiza, previously conservative places in as far as prostitution is concerned, where they came face-to-face with this invasion.

Most of the women joining the world’s oldest profession have taken advantage of a court ruling barring police from arresting sex workers who roam the streets soliciting for sex.

Prostitutes Now Charging $1 For One Round

In Harare, while shopping centres have for long been havens for prostitution, the influx of young sex workers coming out of school and colleges but without jobs has meant that others have had to move and now operate from streets corners.

Anna, a sex worker operating around Machipisa Shopping Centre in Highfield said there is no need for her to travel to the Avenues — regarded as the city’s red light district — as it costs her more.

“I operate from street corners. It is dangerous but it has its advantages since I do not have to look for accommodation. I have regular customers who live around these streets and most of them just call me and we meet. I have found a hidden spot where I can take my clients for a hot sex round.

She said on a good day, she can have around 10 short sessions, each costing $3 which can be negotiated down to two dollars. This means she takes home anything not less than $20 per day after dishing out sex to 10 different men daily – which translates to over 300 men per month!

“The streets are fraught with thieves but most of the customers are genuine with most actually married men who come to us for services. Young men experimenting with sex also form the bulk of our customers and some can offer a dollar for a quickie.”In Harare’s Central Business District, property owners in the Avenues area are cashing in on prostitutes, letting out their apartments during the day with most of them now opting for a number of hookers to rent a single room, paying rentals on a daily basis.

In a survey carried out by the reporters this week, we discovered that property owners charged between five to ten dollars a day and most of the single rooms in that area house four to seven sex workers.

Mathematically, an owner who is letting his/her apartment to hookers is getting something between $1 200 to $2 000 for a single room per month, compared to normal rentals which are pegged at between $300 and $500 per room.

“This is big business and I have to make quick money from prostitutes,” Tapiwa Guvo, who owns a flat in the Avenues, said yesterday.

“What is forcing us to do this is that there are now few people who can afford to stay here, paying high rentals as you know people are losing their jobs on a daily basis.”

Prostitution in the country has assumed a new dimension, merging day and night into one, as women try to coax a living from the world’s oldest profession.

Some people who stay in the Avenues area are even letting their rooms to prostitutes during the day while they are at work.
According to the prostitutes, most of their daylight clients are professionals who do not come drunk as often the case with night clients.

They also added that the men are usually married and even show them pictures of their families. Some of the prostitutes in the Avenues area come from high density suburbs.

“This is our work place (pointing to their rooms). We don’t stay here. As for me, I stay in Kuwadzana. I get money for all my needs here so it makes sense for me to pay $5 per night to the owner of this flat,” said one of the girls who was dressed in a skimpy and tightly fitting scarlet dress.

“To tell the truth, four or five people can have sex in one room and we take it as normal because it’s work — how can you shy from doing something which brings food on the table?”

A number of prostitutes interviewed said they were being driven onto the streets by the current economic hardships.

“I graduated with a diploma in marketing but I failed to get a job and my parents passed away. I decided to go onto the streets in order to get money for rentals, food and pay school fees for my young brother who is staying in Guruve,” said a 25-year-old prostitute.

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