Mother becomes prostitute to avoid responsibilities
“I thought he was working. He would give me money, buy me expensive clothes and take me to places. Life was good."
Fearing responsibilities led a woman from Umlazi in Durban to prostitution and the cold streets on Yeoville.
Nonhlanhla Skhosane said she ran away from supporting her three children, 18-year-old boy twins and a 12-year-old girl.
She said after the twins’ father was arrested, her life turned difficult.
“He was arrested when the children were two years old. He came back last year,” she said.
Nonhlanhla said she did not know that her boyfriend was a criminal when she met him.
“I thought he was working. He would give me money, buy me expensive clothes and take me to places. Life was good. The problems started when the police started frequenting my home to interrogate me about him and his work. He was then arrested,” said Nonhlanhla.
She then met her daughter’s father and although the relationship failed, the father still helped to care for the child.
Nonhlanhla completed her matric in 2008 and in 2012 she and her three friends from Umlazi came to Johannesburg with the hope of finding jobs.
“I worked briefly at a restaurant in Randburg. My friends talked me out of it and I joined them in prostitution. We were doing it from Rosebank. Things were going fine until I was nearly killed by a client. We met at a restaurant. He said we were going to a nearby guest house but he drove past all of them,” said Nonhlanhla.
She said he stopped at an open field and tried to kill her. She managed to escape.
That is when she moved to the streets of Yeoville.
Through the help of the Yeoville SAPS social prevention coordinator, Constable Lindiwe Pele, she has been in and out of shelters.
“Once you live this life it is not easy to live in a home setup. I could not stay there. Even my home, I go there now and again but I cannot stay there. I am going home soon. I will buy my children some school uniforms and other small things but I will not stay,” she said.
She said she would not advise anyone to join prostitution.
“Here you have no life. When you are working you have to wear less clothes, even in cold weather. You have to use something to drug you in order to face the day,” she said.
“I take glue to get through the day,” she said.
Nonhlahla said she has quit prostitution, however she has no intention of leaving the streets of Yeoville.
