‘There’s no protection’: South Africa faces COVID legacy of sex for money

HIV infections and pregnancies are on the increase among young women, after many resorted to transactional sex to survive during the pandemic

I was desperate and thought I was safe, even though it’s super risky. Dimakatso South African national

Acouple of months into the COVID lockdown in South Africa, Dimakatso, 25, resorted to sleeping with an older, married man for 1,000 rand (£50) or (FJ$132.44).

It was the first time she had had sex for money. She did it because she needed to feed her two children, aged five and eight; she was unemployed, and her mother, the sole earner in the household, had lost her job.

“I was desperate and thought I was safe, even though it’s super risky,” says Dimakatso.

“It was because of COVID. There were no jobs. If you didn’t do it, you would starve with your children.”

UN Aids report

Dimakatso is not alone. The latest UN Aids report, which surveyed 2,812 South African women who are either HIV positive or live in high-risk areas, found that since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, 15% more women reported using sex work or transactional sex – where money, gifts or services are given in exchange for sex – to sustain their livelihoods.

Transactional sex is common across a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Anne Githuku-Shongwe, a regional director at UNAids.

“I would say that in any country that is in a conflict or some form of humanitarian crisis, transacting girls and violence against girls is normalised,” she says. “There’s no protection, no safety. It’s a free-for-all.”

HIV infections and pregnancies

HIV infections and pregnancies among teenagers and young women (between 15 and 24) are on the rise. In 2021, an estimated 250,000 were newly infected with HIV globally, according to the report, with 82% of that number in sub-Saharan Africa.

Transactional sex, or the “blesser” (sugar daddy) phenomenon, as it is commonly known in South Africa, is partly to blame, say experts.

“We have a problem with transactional sex and ‘blesser-blessee’ relations,” says Deevia Bhana, a professor in gender and childhood sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

“An early sexual debut correlates with a greater risk of getting HIV.”