Unemployment has also been identified as one of the main reasons young people resort to delinquent behaviour and, in some instances, see many young people become sex workers. Once they have joined, they never want to leave because for them, this is quick money. Bloemfontein Courant also spoke to an escort who started working in the industry at the age of She is now 35 years old and has two children.
I have kept this secret since the day I started," she says. She also explains what led her to become a sex worker: "I needed money for survival. I could not find a job anywhere because I did not have any tertiary qualifications. My options were, therefore, very limited. This turned out to be my only option, and I took the opportunity. Like any good mother out there, I am — above anything else — a mother to my children. I want my children to have opportunities that will earn them a bright future.
I want them to go on school trips like other children. I want them to have a shelter, food and clothes. Where will I get a job that pays R50 a month without good qualifications? Dr Sethulego Matebesi, a senior sociology lecturer at the University of the Free State, defined prostitution as an agreement between two or more people to have sexual relations in return for financial and material gain.
With this definition, he says even children as young as 12 years are sex workers. You find children as young as 12 involved in sexual relations with much older men so they can provide them with money and material things such as expensive clothes. Consciously or unconsciously, this is also prostitution if the intention is to exchange sexual favours for money," he explains. Matebesi adds that Bloemfontein has a serious problem of young ladies who are recruited by drug lords, either by force or within their will, to become sex workers.
For instance, they will get you hooked on drugs. Secondly, they will threaten you about sorts of things if you want to quit.
