Alarm over child sex workers

Manicaland Correspondent
TRADITIONAL healers in Mutare have decried the rampant child prostitution in the town, which they say is reversing the gains made in the fight against HIV and Aids.

This comes on the back of the alleged emergence of prostitution “hotspots” in places such as Sakubva and the city’s central business district’s beerhalls and nightclubs where under-age sex workers search for customers.

Speaking at a Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), provincial technical working group meeting in Mutare, the traditional healers called for urgent measures to arrest the increase in the number of under-age girls and boys involved in beer drinking and transactional sex in Mutare.

A traditional healer affiliated to the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’ Association, Ms Sekai Fifu, said the increasing number of juveniles patronising beerhalls and nightclubs across the district was alarming.

Ms Fifu appealed to authorities to introduce police night patrols to control the situation, as well as roll out income generating projects to keep juveniles off the streets.

“Most of the young girls who get caught up in commercial sex work are usually those that come from less privileged or child-headed families and it is now time relatives and communities come together and help such families by providing constant supervision and guidance before the situation gets out of hand,” she said.

Ms Fifu said on average she, receives 20 juvenile patients a day seeking help for sexually transmitted diseases.

She bemoaned the existence of numerous “hotspots” frequented by older men who were being lured by under-age commercial sex workers.

“It is now disturbing that several hot spots where prostitution is rife have emerged in the city and that these places are notorious for the presence of under-age commercial sex workers, both male and female, some as young as 15 and no longer going to school, but will be busy competing for clients with their older counterparts, particularly at nightclubs and beer outlets,” she said.

Ms Fifu appealed to authorities to introduce police night patrols to control the situation, as well as roll out income generating projects to keep juveniles off the streets.