CHARLES MANGWIRO and HOBBS GAMA, Maputo | Tuesday
PROSTITUTES in the Mozambican capital of Maputo have banded together and threatened to parade naked through the city unless police immediately improve public safety at night.
The prostitutes, speaking as a citywide alliance for the first time, warned they would also investigate funding their own private security force unless police patrols in the city centre are stepped up.
The ultimatum was drafted by representatives from all 10 of Maputo’s major commercial districts who met to discuss the growing number of muggings, hijackings and armed robberies in city of roughly 2,3 million residents.
The representative for the lucrative Nyerere Avenue district, in front of the five-star Polana Hotel, Aidinha, said the rising violent crime wave was driving customers out of the city centre and had left prostitutes “twiddling our fingers”.
“Even when customers do brave the night to visit us, muggers ambush them because they know our men will be carrying cash. We are often left penniless and our clients are left frustrated,” said Aidinha.
She added that ‘professional’ prostitutes who worked from own rooms earned on average US$100 per night in the more popular districts that catered to tourists, business travellers and sailors.
“This crime wave has, however, seen many of us go home with as little as US$7 per night, even though we service our normal 20 customers per night,” Aidinha added.
Representatives complained that uniformed policemen often raided prostitutes rooms at the end of the night and stole their entire earnings. No prostitutes were ever arrested in the raids, they said, and no charges were ever laid.
Other issues dominating the agenda included plans for a social security or pension scheme for professional prostitutes, access to better health care and condoms, and the development of a “retirement policy” for older prostitutes.
Prostitution is technically illegal in Mozambique but is tolerated by police in most urban areas. – African Eye News Service