Thigh Vendors Devise New Survival Strategies Amid Lockdown

As the prevailing Covid-19 induced national lockdown continues to negatively impact on the world’s oldest profession- prostitution- commercial sex workers across urban settlements in Zimbabwe have devised new ways of getting clients in a bid to eke out a living during this difficult period.
When the lockdown started on March 30, hookers who used to crowd the lit streets of, especially Harare and Bulawayo where commercial sex work is more pronounced, were forced to operate from their homes.
In Bulawayo, state media reported that the hookers have now resorted to taking call-in clients as the disastrous Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic takes a toll on their everyday operations.
The sex workers contend that although their daily ‘sales’ have markedly dipped in the last two months, their new method of survival was somehow paying dividends.
“A client phones to alert me that he is coming to my place then I offer him sexual service. At times my client would come to my lodgings and pick me up to his private rented place in town where we would have sex and after that he would take me back to my place,” said Nothando Moyo a mother of two, who has been in the sex business for half-a-dozen years now.
According to another thigh vendor only identified as Nomsa, commercial sex workers are cashing in the region of R500 and R800 during the current national lockdown.
The sex workers also said it was difficult to protect themselves from Covid-19 as their clients would sometimes ask for a kiss before they engage in sex.

State Media
Additional Reporting: Zwnews