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Vincent Gono
THE tumbling of the rand against major currencies and the lack of or delays in bonus payment by both the Government and the private sector has spelt a bleak festive season not only to families but also to those in the oldest profession.
The festive season has always been characterised by an increase in the volume of human traffic into the country from South Africa where a good majority of people especially from Matabeleland are working. And they always come prepared with deep pockets for the festive spending.
Correspondingly, a good number of those in the oldest profession engage a higher gear of hitch-hiking for the purposes of prostitution — a practice commonly referred to as highway prostitution as they try to maximise on this once-in-a-year long holiday.
It is that time of the year where most of the roads even rural ones are awash with white number plates inscribed in blue with a suffix GP for Gauteng Province as they trace their way back to the roots to spend the festive holidays with families and friends in the country.
This year has however, been a little different as the movement has been vice-versa. Very few injivas crossed the Limpopo River for the festive holidays, much so because they did not have the much-needed spending muscle because of the free-falling value of the rand.
Yes, the depreciation of the rand against the US$ has failed to bring the much expected business boom in the country and neither did it bring the excitement.
The Christmas holiday and the period preceding it was devoid of much activity that defines the traditional festive spending where even enterprising ladies of the night always cash-in on the festive spending that is always characterised by spending with reckless abandon, like there is no tomorrow.
Business has therefore, remained at an all- time low even for those in the oldest profession as the volume of money from Mzansi in form of customers declined tremendously compared to the previous years.
This has left the locals in a better footing in terms of spending and entertaining the ladies of the night than their South Africa-based counterparts.
In separate interviews conducted by the Sunday Leisure it was revealed that the business of thigh vending was not very brisk this year’s festive season.
The highway queens who motor the highway prostitution activity said they did not embark much on the highway business as they always do after they learnt that very few injivas were coming in the country for the holidays. And those that managed to be in the country had more pressing issues and have no extra money to spend on purchasing sexual pleasure.
“This year things were different from the previous years. There is no money in town. Very few people got their bonuses and we were waiting eagerly for the coming of injivas but the falling of the rand did not help our predicament.
“Very few people came from South Africa this year. They were hard done by the fall of the rand against the dollar that left them without money at all. Our Christmas was therefore a bleak one that was characterised by little activity and no money,” said one lady who identified herself as Patience.
She said it was usually during this time of the year that they travel to strategic business centres along the highways linking the cities to the country’s entry points but said this year the business was quite low awing to the decline of the rand against the dollar.
Patience admitted that injivas formed a bigger part of their clientele during the festive season and their not coming means a lot to them in terms of their business.
Their situation, she added, was made even worse by the failure by Government to pay the civil servants bonuses in time.
She singled out the army as their most targeted group of the civil servants saying the guys spend money the same way amakorokoza do.
“We thought the soldiers were going to get their bonuses. Those guys can spend money, they can blow away the whole pay in a single night. But that they did not get their bonuses means our festive hopes of getting money are dashed,” she added.
A local lodge operator weighed in saying festive season had never been that low in business.
“This year the festive was low in business. Very few of our clients (prostitutes) brought their men here. It is most probably because very few Zimbabweans based in South Africa came home because of the rand depreciation while those in the country did not get their bonuses let alone salaries for December,” said a lodge operator.
Online Reporter