adminIN what could be a sign that things are not very rosy in the oldest profession known to mankind, child prostitutes have gone a gear up in marketing themselves as they are now literally touting for $1 sex outside Manor Hotel, situated on the periphery of Bulawayo’s Central Business District.
Although it is not something strange to see them milling around some of the city’s hotels that are no longer worried about standards, it is quite strange that they have mustered courage of touting albeit in hushed tones but more interesting is the $1 fee that they are demanding considering the lurking life and health risks associated with the profession.
Yet as the sun sets just beyond the horizon, a brood of young girls are seen standing in a single file along the hotel’s precast security wall where they will be hollering at would be clients for a time of lusty and steamy passion.
Their faces pale from face powder and make-up coupled with tight skimpy clothes that leave nothing to imagination, they openly but alertly tout their services to passersby as if they are selling tomatoes or bananas on promotion.
A recent investigation by Sunday Leisure, however, revealed that some of the ladies of the night who were touting for a $1 short-time sex session were contracted by the hotel authorities who will give them some token of appreciation for bringing in customers at the establishment.
A teenage prostitute, Primrose said the hotel was the perfect spot for her and others plying the trade to practice, as the hotel would offer them a cut for bringing in clients.
Rooms at Manor Hotel range between $20 and $40 a night. However, the lady of the night said there were other rooms that were reserved for the ladies of the night that cost $5 and $10 an hour.
She said most if not all the $5 an hour rooms are never tidy. The beds are old single beds whose linen smells of semen and sweat. Some of the rooms’ doors have no locks while used condoms and tissues litter their floors. There are no ablution facilities in the rooms and some of the ladies of the night and their clients urinate in the sinks.
“If you want to book a room for us for the night you would rather let me do the booking because they will charge you an exorbitant fee. We normally charge $5 for short time but because these days times are hard we have decided to lower our prices to as low as $1. Our advantage is that we are cushioned by the hotel authorities who always give us a token of appreciation depending on the number of customers we would have brought,” she said.
Asked if she was calculative of the risks she was exposed to, she said, “It is better that I go home with $10 after having slept with 10 men for an average of two hours than toiling all night for nothing. After all I don’t eat those risks. We are all going to die,” she added.
Another flesh peddler at the popular hotel and drinking spot claimed that they were given a commission of about $5 or $10, with regard to the room and amount paid.
Much to the surprise of this paper most of the prostitutes and patrons of the bar at the hotel don’t mind the stench emanating from the toilets.
Hard core obscenities are exchanged with reckless abandon with one young prostitute shouting at a man trying to court her that she was there to trade her flesh and was not seeking a relationship.
“Heyi baba angizanga ukuzokhonjiswa mina lapha ngize ukuzothengisa is..re nxa usifuna fakimali.” (I am not here to seek a relationship, I am here to sell my body. If you want you have to pay me).
“This is the only way I can make ends meet as I have no other source of income. I can afford to buy clothes and food through this. I dropped out of school when I was doing Form Two after my father divorced my mother. This is the only way I can make money,” said one child prostitute, adding that she was just 15 and very fresh.
“Normally I can draw up to about 10 clients a night,” she said. She said it depended on what the client wanted adding that normally a short-time session costs $5 but in trying times they lower the prices to as low as $1.
Asked how she manages to ward off competition she stated that they operated in cartels that made sure there was “fairness” in the business.
“If one of the girls tries to steal my client we have small groups or associations that deal with the girl. At least 10 rounds can give me $10 to $20,”she said.
Asked if she enjoyed the sex, she said: “Sometimes I do but normally I do it for the money. It is pleasurable sometimes depending on the client I am doing it with.”
One prostitute who was seemingly in her prime age, sipping on a beer said she had been in the industry for a while now and charged according to the time of the month.
“I charge $5 going upwards on monthends but mid-month there are few clients so we have to compromise with our clients and can go as low as $2 for a short time. Mind you this place is just a starting point, my first round during the day is for my two beers before I start engaging in serious business in busy night clubs,” she said.
She said she no longer enjoyed sex and in most instances felt nothing when she was being intimate with someone.
“On a normal day I can get up to 15 clients, I no longer feel anything to be frank. I no longer enjoy the act. I just do it as part of my work. Just like tidying the house. You just do it because it is necessary not because you enjoy it,” she said.
One daring prostitute said that she practised the profession because she didn’t earn enough to cater for her needs.
“I work in a salon but the money I make there isn’t enough to cater for my needs. That is why I come here to try and make a little extra for myself,” she said.
An official at Manor who demanded anonymity said they worked hand in glove with the prostitutes as they boosted their business. He, however, said they did not have total control over the ladies of the night who throng their premises.
“We work together with the prostitutes and they bring business to us directly or indirectly, as partners we make sure that we provide them with incentives because we need them and they need us,” he said.
He blasted those who were touting on the streets saying they were just mischievous and they did not order them to do that.
“Those prostitutes who tout on the streets are just being mischievous. We never ordered them to do that and we will see to it that we deal with them accordingly because they are creating a bad reputation for the hotel,” he said.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is anyone who has not yet reached the age of 18.
Online Reporter