THE female strip-tease mania has hit ghettos as young, red-hot teen girls take to the romp at several nightclubs with some stripping to the flesh.
While young men and adult males seem to enjoy the sexually provocative acts — judging by their large turnout — some voices, especially parents living within the clubs’ vicinity, are strongly against the new art form which has raided their suburbs. Others are calling for a total ban of strip-tease in the ghettos.
Strip-tease is popular in upmarket and trendy bars where the likes of pole dancers Beverly Sibanda aka Bev and Zoey Sifelani have made a name for themselves.
While Bev and Zoey, both of whom lead dancing troupes do not strip to the flesh, the new breed of strippers are removing everything.
The WeekendPost recently visited a nightclub in Mufakose, popularly known as Mudendere (bird’s nest), during its Thursday and Friday strip-tease shows and was taken aback by the sheer nudity involved.
The joint charges a dollar entry fee so as to control the number of patrons entering and as for the highly-populated suburbs like Mufakose a dollar is a lot of money to just part with.
“Mudendere makaipa. Matenderedza ghetto nejoy,” (This club is massive, it offers great entertainment), said a regular patron.
But investigations by this paper revealed that it was not only in Mufakose where teen strip-tease is now the in-thing at nightclubs but that in almost all ghetto suburbs of Harare and Chitungwiza, the act has turned out to be a major attraction, especially for the youths.
For nightclub owners, most of whom were not comfortable to speak to us concerning the controversial act, it seems cheaper to hire these girls than for them to hire a band.
“It is cheaper to hire these girls as you can pay them anything from $10 to $50 for a night’s performance, so you can hire five of them for less than $100 and it makes sense since we will be charging at the gate and selling beer at the same time,” said a ghetto nightclub manager who declined to be named.
“We are not abusing these girls at all or turning them into sex workers, but we are giving them work so they earn a living. They just strip-tease and go home, they are not sex workers at all.”
But Gladys Moyo from New Marimba Park blamed the government for failing to provide employment to the ghetto youths.
“It is a common phenomenon that when youths lie idle for a long period, they end up doing anything to pass the day. Some will get into drugs while others like girls might end up indulging in activities like strip-teasing.
“There is no way this problem would be solved unless the government provides jobs to the youths. However, nightclub owners should not take advantage of the situation in the country to abuse youths,” she said.
Anna Hove, a vegetable vendor in Mufakose said, “the strip-tease shows should be restricted to upmarket joints.
“We used to hear that such shows happen in upmarket joints not here in the ghettos. We are against it but there is nothing we can do, considering that even police officers are being bribed to allow it,” she said.
Tatenda Mpofu, who sells groceries at the shopping centre in Mufakose, described the “activities” as resembling biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.
“The Bible warned that during the end days, all unholy things shall prevail in society and people shall condone them.
“What is happening here (strip tease) is a fulfilment of verses in the Bible; we are now living in Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said.
Last year, this publication revealed that sex workers had flooded streets in ghettos.
It was reported that sex workers had invaded ghettos where they openly operate from street corners within the suburbs, a situation that has brought discomfort to married women who fear their men might be tempted as the sex workers are within the vicinity.
The sex workers, most of them unemployed and desperate youths, have been forced to sell sex on the streets to earn a living, charging anything from $1.
Competition is high as older women in the same profession have to compete with girls as young as 14 who have become a hit with older men.
The WeekendPost visited some of the major high density suburbs in Harare and Chitungwiza, previously conservative places in as far as sex work is concerned, where they came face-to-face with this invasion.
Most of the women joining the world’s oldest profession have taken advantage of a court ruling barring police from arresting sex workers who roam the streets soliciting for sex.-WeekendPost
