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Grace Mbebe, Features Reporter
Nketa 6 residents in Bulawayo were left shocked after discovering that their small community is now sex worker infested.
A popular sports bar in the suburb has been turned into hub of prostitution. Attention however, follows a young girl, believed to be about 15 years old, who has decided to make herself at home at a room that is at the Nketa 6 park. The room was never designed for living purposes as it does not have electricity or water. The room is even as small as a toilet. A resident who identified herself as a Miss Ndlovu expressed shock at the situation.
“As residents we are worried about the rise of prostitution in the area and I don’t understand how this little girls stay in that room in the park,” she said.
One of the City Council employees who works at the park confirmed that the girl’s family together with the police once made an effort to evict her but all efforts were fruitless. The City Council employee also said they were making efforts to lock her out of the room when she is away but she manages to break in. The young girl gets water for bathing and washing purposes from houses near the park, and is often seen buying food at the shops.
According to an article published by the paper, child prostitution is rife in Bulawayo with a number of children aged between 13 to 17 dropping out of school due to poverty and peer pressure to join the oldest profession in the world. According to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is anyone younger than 18.
An investigation by a Sunday News crew with the assistance of concerned revellers, revealed that child prostitution not only exists in the second capital of Zimbabwe but is thriving in the city centre. The child prostitutes can be found in downtown nightclubs that were once the flavour of the town. These dingy nightclubs have no stringent security measures to bar people under the age of 18 from being admitted into the nightspots. The establishment of new flamboyant nightspots has seen the older prostitutes changing base, leaving the young girls to claim the former major sex spots of the city.
Child prostitutes who were interviewed said they escaped the clutches of the law by bribing policemen who arrest them for loitering and under-age drinking. When our crew entered one bar along 13th Avenue, it was met by a sea of child prostitutes who outnumbered their older counterparts, possibly by two to one. Some of the child prostitutes could be seen negotiating with clients, some of whom were old enough to be their parents. Those who had money to burn were abusing alcohol and dancing on the dance floor.
Most of the child prostitutes stood on walls as they patiently waited for potential clients to approach them. Others were idly sitting on chairs and looked bored that potential clients were few (the busiest nights for prostitution are Thursday, Friday and Saturday). They revealed that short time costs $5 and an all night $20.
Bongani Ndlovu