CHENGETAI MURIMWA RECENTLY IN HWANGE
Hordes of teenage girls in Hwange town have been forced to engage in commercial sex work with cross border truck drivers as parents struggle to provide for their families due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown measures, Business Times can report.
The haulage truck drivers are now said to be hunting for teenage girls in Hwange townships as they wait to ferry coal to other parts of the country and some other countries in the region, a move which analysts described as fuelling HIV/Aids.
There is also a highly likelihood of increasing the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the area.
The situation is said to have become unmanageable.
“Long distance trucks coming in to ferry coal are using open spaces in residential areas luring young girls into prostitution,” Steve Chisose, a councillor in Hwange told Business Times this week.
“This is a very small town and we risk having an increase in STIs cases.”
He said the “hunt” for young girls in the Hwange townships follows the closure of the truck stops along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road by authorities after experiencing a lot of nefarious activities.
The councillor is now appealing to local non-governmental organisations to intervene before the situation gets out of hand.
A Hwange resident, Silibaziso Mapala, blamed the authorities for the rise in teenage prostitution.
“While I acknowledge that what is going on is not good for the girl child, authorities must also share the blame. People that survive on the informal sector for survival have been ordered to stay at home with no plan to bail them out. Our youths, the girl child included, are bearing the brunt of this lockdown and sadly will do anything to survive,” Mapala said.
Anna Mandizha Ncube director of Buwalo Matalikilo Trust, a local community-based organisation, says most families have been affected by the lockdown as they are not generating any income.
Buwalo Matalikilo Trust conducts sexual and reproductive health rights campaign programmes in Hwange.
“The lockdown has brought with it serious challenges around family livelihood incomes and this has impacted negatively on women and young girls especially,” Ncube said.
Men’s masculinity has also been affected in a negative way and this has seen loss of employment and inability to provide for the family being key drivers and motivators for fuelling prostitution and subsequently GBV [gender based violence].”
Ncube said they are continuing with awareness programmes at household and village level, although mobility has been limited by the lockdown measures.
This week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, extended the lockdown by another two weeks, as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.
