ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the lives and livelihoods of sex workers in the border town of Beitbridge. In the literature on sex work broadly, and on sex work in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe more specifically, a range of themes are addressed. Despite the various social, cultural and personal factors behind entry into sex work, the main underlying motivational factor is economic necessity. The key purpose of engaging in sex work, like any other form of work, be it formal or informal, is to ensure a source of income. Client and sex worker relations are tenuous and fall along a continuum from women who have undergone varying degrees of violence to those who have had friendships and romance with clients. Sex work is not undertaken voluntarily as structural factors compelled the single women to enter the sex work trade in Beitbridge, as elsewhere.
