Zimbabwe Sex Workers Demand Upfront Mobile Payment


Its a sign of the technological times as Zimbabwe sex workers start demanding mobile payment upfront. They have had enough of being duped out of payment for services rendered, it seems.

Readers might remember a time when everyone in Zimbabwe could become a billionaire as the Zim Dollar was reduced to a bad currency joke. The country then struggled financially after choosing to ditch the Zim Dollar back in 2009 and starting to use foreign currencies in its stead.

One of the easiest ways to resolve any payment issues was to introduce mobile payment technology and nowadays the most dominant service used is EcoCash. Other services on offer are TeleCash and OneWallet.

Zimbabwe sex workers recently got fed up with clients duping them out of payment for services rendered and decided to get in on the deal to ensure they get what is due. They now carry at least two mobile phones to facilitate payment as they roam the streets of Harare. By having two mobile phones they can then connect to different service providers to ensure they get their money. Now its payment upfront before clients can get what they are paying for.

According to NewZimbabwe, not only does this method of payment ensure the Zimbabwe sex workers get what is their due, it also protects them from corrupt police officers, who often demand bribes during raids for “loitering.”

On top of this, one sex worker commented that some clients who paid cash would then violently demand their money back after business is concluded. Mobile payment ensures this cannot happen.

“So I now request that my clients to pay via EcoCash or Telecash before I offer them services.”

She did say that sometimes clients have no cash in their mobile accounts. In that case she gets them to leave the payment with her friends, “because a lot of them will use you for nothing.”

AllAfrica reports that mobile money transfer agents in Harare operate throughout the night, but one that was interviewed by the media had no idea Zimbabwe sex workers were using this facility to extract payment from their clients.

“I’m just offering mobile money transfer services to people because here lots of them do some cash in and out.”

“What they do thereafter is none of my business and I do not care. But business is brisk here – that is all I can say.”

And it seems business might continue to be brisk for the Zimbabwe sex workers too. At least they are getting paid their due. They are also, apparently using the social media extensively to alert human rights activists when they encounter violence from their clients.

In recently Easter news related to sex workers, the Inquisitr noted that a church in the U.K. brought Maundy Thursday forward by one whole day to accommodate a drop-in by local prostitutes.

[Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Rafe Blandford]

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