Online Reporter
Cuthbert Mavheko, [email protected]
Zimbabwe is facing a crisis that we can no longer afford to ignore, because the damage it is doing to our young people is both visible and deep.
Moral decadence has spread across our towns and cities like a heavy tide, and in its wake it has left broken families, lost potential, and a generation of youth who are increasingly turning to prostitution and other risky behaviours as a way to survive.
This is not a problem confined to one suburb or one city. Reports and community observations show that commercial sex is becoming more visible in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other urban centres. What makes this especially painful is that more and more of the people involved are girls who are still children, some barely into their teens.
We have to be honest with ourselves about what is happening. When a 12-year-old girl believes that selling sex is one of the few ways to earn money, then we have failed her as a society. That is not a statement meant to shock for its own sake.
It is a statement meant to force us to look at the conditions that push children to make such desperate choices. Poverty is part of it. The breakdown of support systems at home is part of it.
Peer pressure, alcohol, drugs, and the glamorisation of quick money on social media also play a role. But the result is the same. We are losing our children to a cycle that offers them money today and takes away their health, dignity, and future tomorrow.
I saw this reality up close recently when I made an unplanned visit to Masilela Beer Garden in Luveve. It was late afternoon, but the place was already full. Groups of young girls and boys were sitting together drinking strong alcohol like Star Brandy, Hudson Whiskey, and Two Keys. Some were smoking cigarettes and marijuana.
On the ground around the tables were used condoms. The atmosphere was not one of celebration. It felt heavy with hopelessness. As I was walking out, a girl who was clearly drunk and holding a cigarette called out to me. She offered to spend the night with me for $15 at her elder sister’s house. I walked away, but the encounter stayed with me because it captured how normal this has become to some of our children.
That is the point where we must stop pretending this is just a private matter. When children are in beer gardens at night, drinking and negotiating sex, it becomes a public health issue, an education issue, and a community issue. The health consequences are severe.
Many young people who engage in multiple and unprotected sexual partnerships are putting themselves at high risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Some believe that using a condom makes them completely safe, but medical evidence shows that while condoms reduce risk, they are not 100 percent effective, especially with consistent exposure.
HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system, and once it progresses without treatment, it leaves the body open to other infections. Despite decades of research and global investment, we still do not have a cure.
Treatment has improved and saved many lives, but prevention remains our most powerful tool, and prevention starts with choices and with the environment we create for our children.
We also have to talk about the values that once guided us. The Bible, which many Zimbabweans hold as a guide for life, is clear that sex was intended to be a covenant within marriage, a place of commitment, trust, and mutual respect.
The instruction to flee sexual immorality is not about shame. It is about protection. It is about preserving the kind of relationships that build strong homes.
When sex is separated from commitment and reduced to a transaction, it does not just hurt individuals. It weakens the institution of marriage, and when marriage weakens, communities lose one of their most important anchors.
The enjoyment and security that come from an exclusive and faithful relationship cannot be replaced by casual encounters. Children who grow up seeing stable, loving marriages are more likely to seek that for themselves. Children who grow up seeing chaos are more likely to repeat it.
This does not mean we should respond with judgment alone. Judgment without action will not bring a 14-year-old girl out of a beer garden. What we need is a collective response that is both moral and practical.
First, parents and guardians must reclaim their role. That means talking to children early about relationships, about money, and about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. It means being present, even when it is difficult, and creating homes where children feel safe to talk. Second, schools and churches have a critical role to play. Life skills education should not be limited to textbooks. It should include honest conversations about peer pressure, consent, economic choices, and the long-term consequences of risky behaviour.
Religious leaders can continue to teach biblical principles, but they must also partner with health workers and social workers to reach young people where they are.
Third, central government and local authorities must enforce laws that protect children. Beer gardens and bottle stores should not become places where minors are served alcohol.
Law enforcement should work with community leaders to identify hotspots where underage prostitution is happening and intervene with support services, not only arrests. We also need economic interventions.
Many girls say they sell sex because there is no other income. Skills training, mentorship programs, and support for small businesses can give young people alternatives.
If a young person can earn money through tailoring, catering, agriculture, or digital work, they are less likely to see their body as their only asset.
Fourth, we must address substance abuse. Alcohol and drugs lower inhibitions and make young people more vulnerable to exploitation. Community campaigns that link substance abuse to sexual risk are necessary. At the same time, we need treatment and counseling for those who are already dependent. Health clinics should offer youth-friendly services that include HIV testing, counseling, and treatment for STIs without stigma. When young people know they can get help without being judged, they are more likely to seek it.
Finally, we as a society must change the way we talk about this issue. It is easy to condemn and walk away. It is harder to ask why a child is on the street at midnight, and what we can do to bring her back.
The Seventh Commandment reminds us not to commit adultery, and in its broader sense it calls us to honour sex and relationships. But the same scriptures also call us to compassion and to responsibility for one another. We cannot claim to uphold values if we do nothing when we see a child in danger.
The truth is that the choices our young people are making today will shape Zimbabwe for the next 30 years. If we allow another generation to grow up thinking that survival means selling their bodies, we will pay the price in health costs, in broken families, and in lost productivity.
If we choose instead to invest in them, to guide them, and to create opportunities for them, we will see a different outcome.
This is not about being perfect. It is about being present. It is about adults deciding that we will not look away. It is about communities deciding that a child on the street is our child. It is about leaders deciding that policy must be matched with resources and action.
I rest my case with this plea. Let us stop normalising what is destroying our children. Let us speak the truth with love, enforce the law with fairness, and offer hope with real alternatives.
Our daughters deserve classrooms, not beer gardens. Our sons deserve mentorship, not empty bottles. And Zimbabwe deserves a future where every young person can grow up with dignity, with purpose, and with the chance to build a life that lasts.
*Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance journalist and theologian, contactable on 0773963448/0775522095. Email [email protected]
