There is an escalation of teenage sex workers with some as young as 15 patronising entertainment places while some linger by the country’s roadsides, scrambling for customers with older sex workers, igniting tension between them.
Nation on Sunday investigations established that the majority of teenage sex workers across the four cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu used to beg while some are troubled teens from semi-urban areas.
In the course of our investigations, we met a 16-year-old sex worker from Mbayani Township trading at Blantyre Post Office.
By 8pm, she was at the spot with five friends.
We approached her pretending to procure services. She charged K6 000 for sex, reducing the amount to K3 000 after negotiations.
She said there was no need to book a room, suggesting any car park as long as we paid K1 000 to a guard.
While at the car park, we revealed our intentions to hear her story, especially how she ended up there.
“I used to beg in the streets and have never been to school. Begging is the only life I have known. But as I grew older, I opted to join my friends who stopped begging and boasted about making more money through sex work,” she said.
The teenager claimed that her mother encouraged her to beg because of poverty and subsequently supported her decision to venture into sex work.
From the proceeds, she supports her mother, who sells cassava, bananas and other seasonal foods in town.
She claimed she does not know her father after he allegedly abandoned them when she was a year old.
On a good day, she makes K40 000, mostly from unprotected sex.
But at Kamba area in Blantyre, a 17-year-old from Zingwangwa Township said she does sex work for fun.
“I started when I was 15 with my boyfriend and I liked it. Then I realised I could earn money sleeping with different people.
“I am usually called at lodges, so I don’t come here often,” she said.
She lies to her parents that she is going for a sleepover at a friend’s house when she patronises the drinking joint.
Teen sex workers have also infiltrated Bangwe, Machinjiri, Ndirande, Lunzu, Chilobwe and Kachere townships in Blantyre.
Three teenagers we talked to from Lilongwe and two others from Mzuzu shared similar stories, except for one who claimed her parents married her off and she escaped into the streets.
She said: “My husband was abusing me, but my mother refused to take me back. So, a friend introduced me to sex work.”
Another said: “There are organisations that try to remove us from the streets, but their support is not sustainable and we are left on our own.”
Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance programmes and litigation manager Ruth Kaima said teen sex work needs to be handled diligently.
She said: “Much as sex work is legal, allowing teenagers into bars is illegal and perpetrators should be brought to book.”
Section 138 of the Penal Code states that anyone who has sex with a girl below 18 years is committing a criminal offence of defilement.
Kaima said the issue needs concerted efforts with all stakeholders playing their role for a common purpose.
National Police deputy spokesperson Harry Namwaza said: “Whenever police officers come across young girls at such places, we pick them and find out more about their parents so that they can be withdrawn from [the streets].”
Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare spokesperson Pauline Kaude said she would revert on the matter, but had not done so by press time at 4 pm on Saturday
