By BONGIWE DLAMINI | 2024-10-08

SEX workers based in areas around Matsapha have revealed that there is a shortage of condoms in the location where they ply their trade.

As a result of this anomaly, they claimed they had resorted to sometimes reusing condoms.
They said they had been engaging in this risky behaviour for about two months now.

Although condoms are usually available even in public spaces like toilets and distributed, the sex workers attributed their behaviour to the lack of condoms close to their places of work.

According to some of the sex workers, condoms were usually availed to them by organisations such as Population Services International (PSI) and the Voice of Our Voices (VoOV).

The latter is a non-governmental organisation, whose mission is to build an effective long-term community response to issues faced by sex workers in Eswatini.

When asked why they did not go to any public toilet or health centre where the condoms were available, the workers said they did not have time to leave their places of work as they conduct trade even during the day.

Some said they did not have the money to travel from Matsapha to other places for the condoms or even HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).  The HIV PEP is a short course of HIV medicines that needs to be taken within three days after exposure to HIV to prevent the virus from taking hold in the body.

Explaining how they conduct their business under the circumstances, the sex workers said more often than not, they did not use protection, which they claimed to have communicated to their clients.

They dubbed the unprotected sex as ‘Me-to-You,’ meaning both the client and themselves are at high risk of contracting sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).

“Some of the clients do not have a problem with us not using protection. Although we also get the money that we so need, such is risky for us and the clients,” said one sex worker.

Others mentioned that on the days where they managed to lay their hands on one condom, all clients who will request for the use of protection would get their wish only with a used condom. The sex workers disclosed that in such instances, they would wash the same condoms before using them with the different clients.

“Being a sex worker is a full time job and some of us have no other sources of income. This is our bread and butter and with the proceeds from this trade, we are able to take care of our families,” they said.

To substantiate this, some sex worker mentioned that one of them was able to pay for the cost of the burial of her parent with the money she made in the trade, while others said they were mothers, who used the money to cater for their children’s need.

Therefore, taking some time off to go to the clinic or to look for free condoms was costly for them.

This shocking development in the manner in which the sex workers conduct their business is a cause for con especially because Matsapha has been deemed as a hotspot for the virus to a point where it had the highest number of new HIV infections.

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