Disturbing revelations have emerged from Bulawayo, where street boys are reportedly being sexually exploited by powerful individuals who allegedly harvest their semen for suspected ritual practices believed to enhance wealth and influence.
According to child rights activists and social workers, boys — many under the age of 18 — are being lured off the streets with food, drugs, and cash, only to be abused in parked vehicles or private residences.
Best Ndlovu, a child protection activist and social worker with the Thuthuka Programme under Scripture Union Zimbabwe, spoke out during a recent site visit organised by the National AIDS Council (NAC).
“The boy child is abused by individuals, or the abuse happens amongst themselves where they sexually abuse each other, or are sexually abused by businesspersons, which of late is trending,” said Ndlovu.
She added that some boys are coerced into sexual acts under the guise of being hired to sleep with women.
“A child will tell us during our quarterly sessions on HIV and sexual reproductive health that a man will approach them and say, ‘I have my wife here, please sleep with her.’ They do it in the back of a car while the man waits in front. When the act is done, the man takes the condom.”
Ndlovu revealed that some of these men pay the boys and even recruit others for similar abuse.
“The businessperson will tell one boy to find three more. They’re given money, taken to a house, told to bathe in tubs.
After that, they’re fed — but we don’t know what’s in the food. The boys say they start feeling dizzy and don’t remember what happens after that, only that they were enjoying because they were hungry,” she explained.
In many of the reported cases, semen is collected in condoms and believed to be used in rituals aimed at increasing financial success.
After being exploited, some boys are reportedly paid amounts ranging from US$10 to US$100, depending on their age and vulnerability.
Source: Zimeye
