In her words: A sex worker's story

Sharon Mathala | Tuesday January 17, 2023 06:00

 

The sex worker says she joined sex work beginning of last year. She had been living with her children in a one room house they had to downgrade to soon after she lost her job.

Desperate to make a living to feed her children she started with illegal transportation of commuters. She said the business was not sustainable as police fines piled up. She then decided to give sex work a try and on the first day she made P 1, 500.

“The truth is I know what I am doing is morally wrong, but what choice do I have?” she rhetorically asked our news team.

“I am a degree holder. I graduated a few years ago and when COVID -19 hit I was retrenched from work,” she explained. She added that she has now moved her family into a two bed-roomed house and according to her, she has gained her dignity back. “I am no longer in debt. I am no longer borrowing money just to survive,” she said. Asked how much she makes in a night, she said she makes triple the amount she made at her previous job. “Well, it depends really, but normally we gauge by the condoms we have.

Per month I use roughly one box, which has about 100 condoms, which translates to roughly P10, 000,” the sex worker said. Asked to share some of her strange encounters with customers she laughed and said: “Well there are many, but I remember one customer asked that I pee on the bed. Different customers desire different things really, but some would just pick you up just to talk.

I have realised that most Batswana men are going through a lot at their homes and sometimes they just need an ear.” Asked if her new line of work is long term she said, “Not really. I have a few projects that I want to finance, but I don’t see this as a long term thing. Although I feel it is addictive, because we have some people who leave the work only to return after months.” Still on her experience with police officers, the sex worker recalls how one day she was harassed by the police.

“They kept harassing me and my clients. Later on I went to their car and they said they would stop harassing me if I gave them sex and so I did and they stopped harassing my clients,” she alleged.

Asked what her family thinks of her new job, she said: “They don’t know. My children just know that mommy is working.” Asked if she has ever encountered a situation where one of her customers is a member of a family of someone she knows she said: “Actually yes. I remember then, the customer was our neighbour. After discovering it was him I refused to engage him. We have never talked about it. But you see mostly I don’t even look at my clients, because I don’t want to know them or get familiar with them.” WATCH FULL CLIP OF THIS INTERVIEW ON OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS THIS WEEK.