| Dec 1998 Child prostitution is rife in South Africa. It's a means of survival for impoverished township kids. Standing at the side of the road two young girls pass time playing like children, until their pimp tells them to shut-up. Their friend 14 year-old Lindy, lifts her top to let a potential client inspect her wares. "They like to suck them because I'm young" she says. Following a girl on a job we confront her white client. His flies undone, he denies he knew how old she was and demands his money back. A passer-by comes to help him out. "He was just following a call of nature," he says. Nobody knows how many children are working the streets. They stay here because of poverty, because there is no home to go back to and prostitution is all they can do to survive. Local police have given-up chasing the clients; "If you catch these people they won't give evidence [against clients] because tomorrow they will be back on the street." Instead social workers try to take the children into homes. The numbers they can help though is small, and most turn back to prostitution. |
