Women Vendors Coerced Into Sex For Trading Favours, Report Finds

Women working in Gweru’s informal sector are reportedly being coerced into having sex with men in authority in exchange for favours such as vending space, permission to trade from undesignated areas, and the right to sell restricted goods.

The revelations have prompted human rights defenders to call for sextortion to be explicitly criminalised under both anti-corruption and gender-based violence laws, amid growing concern about widespread sexual exploitation of women in Zimbabwe’s informal economy.

Gender and inclusion specialist Thando Gwinji said women now make up more than two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s street vendors, yet they remain on the margins of economic power.

She was presenting findings at the Informal Sector Women’s Symposium on Gender Justice and Policy Positioning, organised by the Vendor Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) in Gweru on Friday.

Gwinji described vending spaces as “battlefields” marked by police raids, confiscation of goods, extortion, theft and sexual harassment.

She said sextortion had become one of the most serious forms of abuse affecting women in the informal economy.

According to the study, some women are allegedly being forced to provide sexual favours in return for protection from arrest, the recovery of confiscated goods, or access to vending spaces.

“Women reported sex being demanded in exchange for avoiding arrest, recovering goods and accessing vending spaces,” said Gwinji.

More: Midweek Watch

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