Zohra Mohamed Teke spent some time getting to know some of the elusive prostitutes who work underground in Durban. These are their stories, told for the first time. Michell, a year-old transgender: I was born in the Eastern Cape and grew up as a boy, but I felt different. I gradually started becoming gay and at 18 I left home to study communication science at UCT.
By then I was openly gay with feminine ways. After two years of studying I ran out of funds and started waitressing but could not save enough money to go back to university. I left for Durban thinking it would be easier here, but boy, was I wrong!
I met other transgenders and saw they were living quite a good lifestyle from doing sex work. I eventually became so desperate as I ran out of money and decided to give sex work a go because I needed to survive and could no longer live with my friend for free. My first time was with a white guy, a friend of a friend who met me at a club. He asked me to go to his place and I was terrified. But he offered me more money and we went to his house where we started the evening drinking.
I drank a lot because I could not handle the thought of what I was doing. It was nerve racking. After we had sex and he paid me, I felt relieved because just having some money took away the stress to pay bills and so on. From then it became easier. I am now able to rent my own place, advertise my services discreetly and earn around R2 a week.
They pick us up, demand a bribe or sex, keep us overnight in a cell and then let us go. I am humiliated and mocked in front of everyone. Read more: My night in a Durban North brothel. I have other plans for my future. I want to get my passport, finish my degree and work in a corporate environment in South Africa or elsewhere if the environment is not welcoming of me as a transgender. My message to society is not to judge us. We all have dreams. For most of us, our circumstances push us into doing what we do.
