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Prostitutes
flock to South Africa ahead of World Cup 2010
The
Christian Science Monitor
May
12, 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0512/Prostitutes-flock-to-South-Africa-ahead-of-World-Cup-2010
As with the 2006 World
Cup in Germany, a rampant sex trade is of concern to human rights
groups ahead of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, which kicks
off next month. Prostitutes, many from impoverished Zimbabwe, are
arriving to cash in on an estimated 500,000 visiting fans.
Zimbabwe's sex workers
are deserting their country for greener pastures in South Africa
as the World Cup 2010 draws nearer, causing human rights and church
groups worldwide to call for measures to curb human trafficking
and prostitution.
But the economic promise
offered by the arrival of some 500,000 World Cup foreign fans is
already attracting impoverished workers.
"If ever there was
time to make money, this is the right time," says Shuvai, a
Zimbabwean commercial sex worker working at Maxime Hotel in Johannesburg.
The 22-year-old says
she arrived in Johannesburg on March 27 with eight fellow prostitutes
from Zimbabwe, north of the Limpopo River. She says that she came
because of all the international visitors for the World Cup, June
11 - July 11.
The event is
no stranger to the sex trade. The 2006 World Cup in Germany, where
brothels and prostitution is legalized, brought on an additional
influx of an estimated 40,000 sex workers, plus a lot of criticism
from rights groups. South Africa's Central Drug Central Authority
has also estimated that 40,000 sex workers will come to Johannesburg
for the 2010 World Cup, though the agency gives no reasoning for
this figure.
A check of eight
popular Johannesburg hotels, Maxime Hotel, Royal Hotel, Hillbrow
Inn, Ambassador Hotel, Diplomat Hotel, Little Rose Hotel, Summit
Hotel, and Orion Devonshire Hotel, and others in Sandton, Fourways,
Crego, Rosebank, Midrand, and Boksburg showed them to be filled
with newly arrived prostitutes, most of them from Zimbabwe.
'Competition
is tight'
Hotel employees
also say they have seen a recent influx of prostitutes. "From
the look of the fully booked hotels around Johannesburg and Pretoria,
we think these female sex workers could exceed 40,000," says
one hotel general manager, declining to be identified. "There
are some from outside Africa from as far as China, Pakistan, India,
Hong Kong, and Venezuela, who are here for prostitution."
Young prostitutes appear
to be organized into groups led by a elder women who smuggles the
girls here from Zimbabwe, says Ushe Nyahunzvi, a man from Zimbabwe
who works at the Hillbrow Inn.
"These [elder] women
are the ones who smuggle them from their native countries for the
purposes of using the girls to make a living. Old women are losing
business hence using the girls," Mr. Nyahunzvi says. "The
competition is very tight because of the World Cup."
'I will
be able to buy my own car'
Cyril Mwamba,
32, says she traveled more than 1,700 miles from Zambia's Ndola
Copperbelt to reach the World Cup. Along the way, she met up with
Zimbabwean prostitutes at a bus station, and she says they decided
to travel together to Johannesburg for the opportunities here.
"When
we came here [Summit Hotel], we were not so sure whether we would
be able to attract rich and well-paying men since back home in Zambia
men were looking down upon us," she says. She says she now
earns R2,000 (about $270) per night.
"I am convinced
that after the World Cup, I will be able to buy my own car,"
Ms. Mwamba says. "Cars are cheap here in South Africa."
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