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* South Africa - Truckings' "Working Women" & Other Trucker's Stories
* It's a rough ride for these working girls
If it's truckers who keep the economy on the move, they do that truckers moving too
Cape Town,South Africa -The Independent Online, by Chris Makhaye -December 2, 2007: -- Come rain or shine, you can find them at truck-park stops across the country... If it's truckers who keep the economy on the move, then it's these women who provide them with company of a sort to make the long road a little less lonely... They are the industry's "working women", or oNopaka, a derogatory term for prositutes. They range from mid-teens to women in their late 40s... Busi Mvelase*, 41, has been on the beat, on and off, for nine years, apart from a brief period when she found temporary work in a factory... When we met her, she was at a truck-stop with two prostitutes, both seemingly in their late 30s. One was at an advanced stage of pregnancy... The disease is not the only danger facing these women of the night. Sometimes drivers want sex but refuse to pay, or drop them in the middle of nowhere, telling them to make their own way back home... (See this illustrative video on YouTube)
* Down a hard road
Cape Town,South Africa -The Independent Online, by Chris Makhaye -December 2, 2007: -- We met Mkhetheni Xulu* on a clear Sunday night just off the N3 highway. He was washing down his supper with a cup of coffee at a truck-stop near Pinetown... This 66-year-old from Malukazi, south of Durban is regarded by his fellow truck drivers and owners as one of the few remaining veterans of South Africa's freeways. Roads - from big cities to small dorpies - he's pretty much driven them all... And in his 39 years as a truck driver, Xulu has had many experiences. But nothing worries him more than HIV/ Aids... He's a talkative man who cracks jokes and follows them with a loud chuckle. But as soon as the subject of the pandemic was raised, his face changed. There was sorrow in his eyes... Three years ago he lost a close friend to the disease and he has lost 10 of his colleagues in less than five years... Deidre Norton of Cape Town was on the truck from Durban to Cape Town with her fiance, Riaan Botha. Norton decried the working conditions most truck drivers faced... "They are the ones who bring in money to their companies but they get the worst end of the stick. It is no wonder so many are demotivated"... The couple always travel together. And Norton said when people saw her with her fiance on the truck they assume she was a prostitute...
Labels: roads' "working womens"
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