With the cold nights and COVID restrictions, the sex workers have had to be innovative to survive the harsh times. Ha re ktneng. This is the shocking name of a facebook group of people who have turned sexual relationships with multiple concurrent partners into a game. The facebook group's members are mostly sex workers whose agents tout for customers online and facilitate meet-ups.
We have deliberately misspelled it here because written in Sesotho it might be offensive to some readers. It is through this platform that many sex workers are getting a steady flow of customers and they do not have to parade on the streets with sexy pants to lure customers during the bitingly cold nights. It is also a safer place, some of them told thepost. They do not have to clash with the police, whom they used to accuse of raping them under the pretext of arresting them for milling about.
She said the pay from the textile factory in Maputsoe, Leribe, was so little that she could not afford to take care of her extended family. I am earning less than M2 per month and of that amount I use over M for transport. Each of her children has a different father and they are both deadbeat dads with no sense of responsibility, she said. Most of her customers are truck drivers who deliver goods to and from the factories.
The Facebook page has become handy these days as she meets her clients online. The two decided to rent a room and share the costs. Business has become so lucrative that her friend has since resigned from the factory to focus on selling sex. The friend refused to talk to thepost. Another sex worker, a year-old Lorraine, waits for truck drivers at the Maseru border gate but on the South African side.
Lorraine has a university education, having graduated from the National University of Lesotho NUL last year and is looking for a job. Her friend in the industry introduced her to truck drivers across the border and ever since she never stopped the trade even when the government paid stipends timeously. Even during last year's Covid lockdown Lorraine used to cross with ease to sell her services to drivers who were bringing essential goods to Maseru.
