PROSTITUTES in South Africa are preparing to cash in on England fans during the 2010 footie World Cup.
But HALF the nation’s hookers are infected with HIV or AIDS.
A shock investigation by The Sun has revealed girls from poverty-stricken townships are desperate for ENGLAND to qualify and bring their army of fans.
Parading on the hard shoulder of the N7 road from Cape Town, they wait for passing trade while dreaming of the boost in business 2010 will bring.
Road to ruin ... Levola, Yolanda and Samantha wait for punters
The city’s stadium will host group matches and a semi-final. It isn’t finished yet but teenage prostitutes Yolanda, Lavola and Samantha are already dreaming of the extra cash they stand to earn.
They save what little they can from their sordid encounters to pay their share of the cost of a convoy of minibuses ready to take the sex show on the road in just one year.
If their teams qualify, Brits risk paying the ultimate price for a cheap thrill if they use the desperate women who punctuate the barren landscape either side of all roads to Cape Town.
The three girls I spoke to, from shanty town DuNoon, are in high spirits about the approaching footie fest, despite having just been fined for exposing themselves to drivers.
They had been flashing their boobs and lifting their skirts to show they were ready for work.
Yolanda Lorika, 19, squeals: “We just can’t wait. We only get paid about £10 for sex when drivers stop for us here. English men will pay a lot more.
“We’ll probably have to fight over them with the girls who already have pitches in that area, but it will be worth it.
“We’re hoping to earn enough to get a decent life.”
A decent life is something she knows nothing about.
Yolanda and little sister Lavola are homeless. They have been abandoned by their families and repeatedly robbed and raped.
Up for some fun ... English fans?
They are fortunate to have a health clinic near their homes and say they are regularly tested for HIV/AIDS.
But punters planning to party with girls like these should remember that one in every two prostitutes in South Africa has tested positive.
Yolanda describes how she came to be a street walker.
She says: “I remember when we lived in the bush, near a farm. My father left us for another woman and we had no money so my mother got desperate.
“She took me and my sister to live with our grandparents in a settlement near Cape Town.
“I was nine years old when my grandfather raped me. I thought I was being smart when I went out and found a pay phone and called the child abuse line. Looking back, I think maybe I should have kept quiet.
“My grandfather was arrested and put in jail. My grandmother threw me and my sister out on to the street with nowhere to go.
“We were taken into an orphanage by social workers and for the next few years it was a calm, safe place for us.
“But by the time I was 14 I was fed up with all the rules and regulations. I wanted freedom.
“Lavola and me left. We slept on the floor in friends’ shacks until they asked us to go.
“At the moment we are living with our friend Samantha and her mother. There isn’t really room for us but we all share a bedroom and we are close. Samantha’s mother is very sick with AIDS and we share the work of looking after her.
“We don’t have any identity documents, no birth certificates or anything, so we can’t even think about getting jobs. I had a boyfriend who always threatened me. He wanted me to start dealing in drugs and give him the money. He said he would kill me if I left him.
“But I’ve seen so many girls led into drugs and sex work, giving all the money to pimps, and I’m not going to do that.
“I left him. My sister and our friend Samantha and me now work together on the motorway.
“It’s dangerous, and some of the men and women in our settlement curse us, calling us whores.
“What’s worse is that the tsotsis (gangs) come after us in the street near our home, telling us we must give them the money we earned. If they catch you they won’t let go until they’ve raped you and robbed you.”
All three girls have been raped several times. In DuNoon, where they live, it is the norm.
Yolanda longs to be a social worker. She says: “If I can earn some big money when all the World Cup fans arrive that will be my dream. Maybe I could go to a government department and try to get some identity documents, get out of this life.”
Her sister Lavola, who looks older than her years in her tight-fitting top and thigh-high denim skirt, is just 16.
With Yolande and Sam, Lavola leaves the chaotic settlement of shacks and poor government housing at DuNoon and dodges traffic to take up her place on the hard shoulder each morning.
The girls manage to stop half a dozen vehicles each day, climb in without a thought for their safety, and receive around £10 a time for sex acts with strangers.
The reason for optimism ... Cape Town's new stadium
They say they always use condoms, stolen in quantities from the health clinic in DuNoon.
Samantha, 16 like Lavola, told matter-of-factly how her sick mum had “finished her course of pills”.
Samantha says: “My dream is to find a nice man one day, marry him and have babies and a good life.
“I would take my sister and brother and my mother out of DuNoon and we would live together somewhere without problems.”
The youngster has already had her six-month-old baby, Tania, taken into foster care.
She says: “The baby was an accident. My boyfriend at the time had no money and we didn’t know what to do.”
Sometimes she visits Tania and, smiling like the child she still is, she tells me: “I like to hold her.”
The young absentee mum then explains her background. “My father was lazy and didn’t work. He drank a lot so one day my grandmother came and took me and my mother.
“She brought us here but after two months she died. The rest of the family were unkind to us.“I had to get up at 5am every day and fetch water from the river in a bucket, then walk to school.
Top event ... South Africa 2010
“As I got older some bad girls I knew said they would take me to a Somalian guy and he would give me money. I said ‘No, I don’t want to do that.’ They found a Nigerian guy instead and he had sex with me in his house and gave me £7.
“I realised this was the only way I would ever have any money.”
The three girls know they are breaking the law but their poverty, ignorance and desperation prevents them from changing.
Prostitution is rife in South Africa. The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Trust wants the law changed to decriminalise the girls.
Spokesman Vivienne Lalu said: “We want to reduce the risk to sex workers, to give them a health regime and police protection from violence. They are at immense risk of HIV and need to have free health checks to protect them and their clients.
“Our concern is for the sex workers in a situation where clients will actually pay more for sex without condoms. We want legal rights for all prostitutes.”
South African MPs recently discussed the possibility of legalising prostitution for the duration of the 2010 World Cup. No final decision has been taken.
For anyone paying to play away in 2010, it could be a deadly mistake.
source - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1018041.ece
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