The ladies of the night have a question for the morning after: what happens to the money? For Patricia, a 26-year-old woman who appeared on the Banele WJLM podcast with her face covered by sunglasses, a scarf, and a mask, making money is not necessarily the hardest part of being in the sex-work industry. The bigger question is what happens to that money when the work eventually comes to an end.
Patricia, a pseudonym used to protect her identity, said she and other women in the industry can take home around E5,000 a week when they work consistently. She explained that the amount depends on being out and working regularly, taking clients and accepting different kinds of calls, including lower-paying requests.
But while the figure may sound significant, Patricia said the women have few formal ways of protecting their earnings. What she wants is insurance and a way to save towards retirement.
She said women in the industry should have an institution or system that allows them to contribute towards their future from the money they make every day.
If a woman makes E500 in a day, for example, she should be able to put a portion of that money into a retirement or insurance fund rather than having to wait for a traditional monthly salary arrangement. The idea is particularly important to Patricia because she does not see sex work as something that necessarily lasts forever.
The women may be making money now, but eventually they may want to leave the industry. When that happens, she wants them to have something to show for the years they spent working.
Her argument also challenges the assumption that making money automatically means being financially secure. A person can have an income and still have no retirement savings, insurance or formal employment benefits.
For women working outside traditional employment structures, there may be no employer contributing towards a pension or providing benefits when they are sick or unable to work. Patricia wants that gap addressed. But the money is only one part of the conversation.
There is also the question of what happens while the women are earning it. On the podcast, Patricia described a job that carries risks every time a woman meets a new client. There is the possibility of encountering a violent man, a client who is carrying an illness, or someone who makes demands that the woman is uncomfortable with.
There is also the uncertainty that comes with meeting strangers and not always knowing what kind of situation awaits once they leave the roadside or wherever they have arranged to meet a client.
For Patricia, those risks are part of the reality of waking up, going to work and doing the job every day.
She also spoke about her experience with law enforcement. According to Patricia, she once reported a case to the police but said the matter was not taken through and eventually disappeared.The experience, she said, left her losing interest in following up.
That is Patricia’s account of her own experience, rather than an independently established finding about how police handle cases involving sex workers. Still, her concerns exist within a legal environment where sex work remains criminalised.
Eswatini’s Crimes Act of 1889 contains several provisions relating to prostitution, including offences around keeping a brothel, procuring women for prostitution, living wholly or partly on the earnings of prostitution and loitering in public places for the purpose of prostitution or solicitation.
That legal framework has remained part of the conversation around the safety and rights of sex workers, with advocacy groups and other stakeholders having previously called for changes to the laws to improve access to healthcare and reduce risks associated with criminalisation.
It is also a conversation that sits alongside the economic circumstances surrounding sex work. A 2024 Eswatini country progress report submitted to UN Women cited findings from the 2021 Integrated Biological-Behavioural Surveillance Survey, which estimated 12,274 female sex workers in the country.
The report also discussed factors including youth unemployment, school drop-out rates and urbanisation in relation to the sex-worker population. Older estimates had placed the number at around 4,000, with reported concentrations in areas including Matsapha, Manzini, Malkerns and Ezulwini. Because that estimate dates back to 2015, it should not be treated as the current size of the population.
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She said she fell pregnant as a teenager and was subsequently thrown out of her home. The father of her child denied the baby, leaving her to find a way to support herself and her child.
She initially tried domestic work, washing clothes for people. According to Patricia, however, the work was not sustainable, particularly because people were hesitant to employ someone so young amid concerns around child labour.
It was during this period that she met a woman she had previously worked for. Patricia said the woman introduced her to sex work and told her that she could make money from it. She eventually entered the industry in 2024.
Her story is one example of how economic vulnerability can become part of a person’s route into sex work. It does not mean every woman in the industry has the same experience, but poverty, unemployment and limited opportunities remain part of the wider conversation around informal work.
There is another side to the conversation that Patricia wants people to consider. She does not describe herself as someone who is simply looking for money today. She is also thinking about what happens years from now.
The number, however, is not the part of her story that Patricia appears most concerned about. Her focus is on the life surrounding the work. She spoke about women who wake up every day, go to their usual spots, meet clients and earn money, while having no obvious formal structure through which to insure themselves or prepare for retirement.
She wants that to change. And while Patricia spoke about her own experiences, the circumstances she described also point to the economic pressures that can shape a person’s choices. Teenage pregnancy, rejection from family, unemployment, and the struggle to support a child can leave young women looking for whatever income they can find.
Patricia’s own first option was domestic work. When that did not provide enough stability, another opportunity presented itself. That opportunity happened to be sex work. Her story does not establish that every woman enters the industry for the same reason, but it illustrates how economic vulnerability can become part of the journey.
The financial side of sex work is also not simply a question of how much money is made. It is about whether that income can be converted into something lasting. Patricia wants the women in the industry to have access to insurance, savings and retirement arrangements that recognise the way they actually earn.
The model she describes would allow a woman to contribute according to what she makes rather than relying on a conventional monthly salary. If she makes E500 today, she should be able to put something away today.
The question of retirement may sound far away when someone is focused on getting through the week, but that is precisely the point Patricia is making. The women may be earning now, but there is a future beyond the next client.
There may be a day when a woman becomes tired of the work, wants to raise her children differently, starts another business, finds another job or simply decides she has done enough. On that day, Patricia wants her to have options.
That could mean an insurance policy, retirement savings or another form of financial protection that allows her to leave the industry without starting completely from zero.
For the ladies of the night, the morning after is not only about what happened with the previous client. It is also about bills, children, health, savings and the possibility of eventually walking away from the work.
Patricia wants them to be able to do that with something saved for the next chapter. And perhaps that is the part of the conversation that deserves more attention: whatever someone thinks about the work itself, the person doing it still has a future to prepare for.
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