This is a stupid article because everywhere in the world this oldest trade is still moving on.Go to UK, USA, FRANCE, ....... or even CHINA and the same sex-trade is going on. It is shameful to see the name "UN" attached to this article. Please let us know the root cause of the Zimbabwe's problems.The leaders are not the causes but the outcome or effects. ABABIO GUEVARA

It IS the leadership that is responsibility for this terrible economic crisis. Of course the prostitutes themselves are Not exonerated. It may drive them to such sordid acts, but it is still against God's will - which provides only for a husband and wife alone to have sex. So you'd better admit that Mugabe is ultimately responsible for the terrible economic mess in Zim. He has caused the disaster by his stupid economic policies that have removed means of producing agricultural income and producing food, to now causing people to starve and do sinful acts to earn enough to just stay alive from day to day. Kimbamba

What is this crazy hallucination of yours you call a god ? Are you retarded, guy ? And you give even a will to a product of your perverted imagination. These women have nothing to do for a living but to work with their a***... What you or your "gods" delirium give them ? Tell me...

If your god would exist, it would be guilty of the worse crimes !

You should get advise from a physician, poor psycho you.

Please do not trivialize the danger associated with sex work by attacking someone's belief in God. Belief in God is not a crazy hallucination. It is a fundamental human right to hold religious beliefs - just as much as it is your right not to believe in any god. What is important is to love and respect one another regardless of our beliefs - be they religious, political, etc. The disaster in Zimbabwe is due to this basic lack of respect for the rights of others to hold different opinions - in particular the right to belong to a political party of their choice.

please identify the portion of the article that is stupid. the fact that prostitution is rife everywhere does not mean it should not be reported on. The article was showing the desperate lengths once ordinary and self respecting people are having to do just to make a living...this is prostitution borne not out of choice but out of necessity..that was the whole basis of the article...not what your small mind conceived!!!

It's really a sad thing that people are being forced to go to such a low point just to survive and to have a "good time". But the article seems to be showing the infidelity of truck drivers and their economic options for a "good time." I don't see the essence of the article, is it just data dumping, smearing the fabric of the Zimbabweans' morals, an analysis of the effects of the economy to the prostitution sector/industry, or what.. I really don't get the directional initiative of this article..

The IRIN is just a propaganda NGO in Southern Africa led by Mr. Oliver in Botswana. They write a lot of rubbish and the steal articles from Africans in the region and without permission. This is there many totally false stories. Yes, protsistution exists world over. Yes, like many countries which are under economic stress, prostitution will thrieve. Is that surprising...No. Is it sad, yes.

Every article from IRIN is hyperbolic about Southern Africa. I guess that is the only way they will get funding!!! I understand that African staff at IRIN are not allowed to write "real" stories about Africans, if they are shown as successful.

Phiri if as you say "It is not surprising that with countries under economic stress prostitution will thrive", why do you not give the report by IRIN the benefit of your doubt? As usual you would rather sweep it under the mat or discredit the reporter just because he is from Botswana. The town of Mesina where all this is said to be taking place is at the border of Zimbabwe and South Africa not very far for a reporter from Botswana to get first hand information. The main concern is if so many Zimbabwean women are bartering essential commodities and cash for sex then the incidence of HIV infections will be very high. The vulnerability of even 15 year old girls catching HIV AIDS through this casual sex with the truckers and older men is also distressingly high. This sort of thing would not have suddenly sprung up if all was well in Zimbabwe. Clean up your act in your country and return these citizens back home away from shame.

kjrs....and phiri has the cheek to call us biased. As is with all people afraid of the truth..they seek to demonise tellers of truth. it is telling that of all the journals written world over the only one the likes of phiri seem to hold in any sort of esteem is the dicredited Herald...what more can I say. they will swallow the whole camel when it is a herald story but will pick at any story written by any other news agency! blind following the blind!

And that's the truth.

Turnex , aw Independent and Krjs120, you white Southern Rhodesians amaze me at the level of ignorance that you show. As borders are opened, the normal outcome in every continent has been prostitution, high crime etc. EU opened its borders and the level of prostitution is fairly high as a result. Your ignorance raises my fears that because you were raised in homes with high barbered wires, you were real never exposed to what normal Zimbabweans already know or hard seen. Your “Rhodesian” lies real show that you are not a good fit for modern Zimbabwe.

I want to remind you of one other fact. Zimbabwe has the lowest incident of HIV/AIDs infection in Southern Africa (Botswana, Zambia, South Africa etc). Also Zimbabwean women are the most educated women in SADC. I guess this facts, that you keep twisting bother you! Well …that is too bad.

The Chances are very high that IRIN did not write the article, but copied it and added their usual rubbish about Africa. This NGO is said to be associated with the UN, which is terrible!

Phiri, your outlook to life is that of a pompous cockroach. If you were raised with prostitution in your front yard, it does not mean that the rest of us have to accept it as a norm. I am aware that it is named the 'oldest profession', but where do you think HIV AIDS is also springing from? Where you have people hopping into bed with one another and having unprotected sex. Where you have a man with multiple partners and where you have a woman with multiple partners. Just because the death rate from Aids has dropped in Zimbabwe, you do not know how many are HIV infected? Your country does not even have the means to test its citizens let alone provide a single Panadol because your government of Mugabe has seen to it that your country is stripped not only monetarily but stripped of its sovereign dignity. A total laughing stock. How many Zimbabweans will return from South Africa with the HIV virus and spread it? You do not know. If you cared at all about your women folk, that report about bartering sex for soap and sugar whether true or false, should have raised great concerns. Just because there is a lower incident of deaths due to Malaria, do you stop eradicating the mosquito? Just because there is a lower incident of polio, deaths from small pox, measles or even tuberculosis that were so prevalent, do you stop inoculations? Prevention is better than cure but once you have HIV AIDS - God help you. Phiri your whole outlook and attitude towards life stinks. To you life is nothing but a free for all. I have no respect for you as you are just a blind, brain-washed, stupid bloody fool. You are a shameful African and Africa is too good for you.

You know you are a SOUTHERN RHODESIAN WHEN:

.1. You claim that Zimbabwe was the bread and basket of Africa, even though Zimbabwe (ZIM) exported almost all her agriculture products to EU, especially UK, and also grew Tobacco and other cash crops.

2. You claim that the white population in ZIM is 5% of the total population, without doing the math that shows (50,000/12,000,000) less than 0.5%.

3. You survey your black garden boy whether he would like the old Rhodesia back, and he nods his head with approval, and you conclude that the majority of black ZIMS want Ian Smith and his Rhodesia back. Forgetting of cause that more garden boys working for black people nod with disapproval.

4. You hate ZIM so much that you have gone to the UK permanently, and then after 4 months you start asking where you can find black ZIMS in the UK. After much frustration in the UK, you start calling yourself a white African.

5. You claim that blacks had better education under Smith, when in fact blacks who make up the vast majority were hardly seen at the University of Rhodesia. You conveniently forget that blacks had to pay university fees.

6. When you think Britain should be the only country solving Zimbabwean problems since it was the colonial master.

7. When you are homeless in the Bulawayo and Harare parks and still believe you are superior to the “lower black races”.

8 When you join NGOs and other civil rights organizations, claiming you always believed in Freedom, when in fact you did not talk about Civil rights when the matebele were killed by Mugabe. Civil rights to you mean bringing back those racists white minority farmers to Zimbabwe.

Phiri you know that you are a pompous good-for-nothing piece of dirt because you still refer to dignified African men as "garden boys". You are crap.