ColumnBehind My Pipe Smoke
By Fanzo Skhova
20/05/2016
We are a nation gifted in humour. Be it calling our national teams bafana bafana, amakrokokroko or nicknaming the President after an American rapper Jay Zee.
We also refer to those who advocate for gender balancing cash flow as “blessers”. This reminds me that we have a social responsibility to “bless” this trending dubious social gathering business trading as “mavuso” with a fatherly advice.
Mavuso, as explained on a television investigative show last week, is a socialising activity with a touch ultimate benefit at cost. So it goes, the active participants knowingly “sponsor” the benefit. The beneficiaries willingly become available to those who can match the minimum bid that guarantees access to the temporary paradise only comparable to the land of milk and honey. That is welcome of course. After all the principle is no pay no gain is not unfair an environment that encourages a free market economy. 
That said, we have a bone to pick with this movement that mavuso is. Our gripe is inspired by the way-side consequences that are likely to victimise our young girls who are trapped in poverty and of course those who have itchy fingers for cash. Mavuso, as eloquently justified by the beneficiaries, is not prostitution. It is a “dignified” temporary bilateral trade of cash for fun that does not exclude sex. So, as they would have us believe, mavuso is a token of appreciation for the romantic companionship that the man is offered. Perhaps they have a point because prostitution is a peculiarly full time occupation in service of several clients each shift whereas mavuso is a once-a-week shift restricted to a single client. Now that makes it more appetising for prospective victims.
Young poor girls are likely to embrace this fun-for-cash movement because it is least frowned upon and lesser stigmatised than traditional sex sale. The airtime that this movement is enjoying on social networks is phenomenal. That space, is what young and vulnerable female youth have made their second home. They eat and live social media. Trending such a morality spoiling practice in high volume presents a passive threat to youth who naturally find thrill in exploring the trendy and new. Something highly likely attractive because it comes with a few rand notes when the curtain falls at the end of the play.
Adults in their varying capacities are indulged to protect their offspring from the hyenas in possession of countable R100 notes. Let us teach our children that there is more to a happy life than starting the night with a R2 coin only to end it with several hundred of rand notes. Our young ones are lucky to still have you because I trust you will break to them the secret that life has more rewards than trading your body and soul for cash as much enough to nail a lay-bye of carvella or paying for a trending hairdo.
This is also a call to action directed to youth themselves to practice peer-coaching. Nudge the boy or girl next to you and whisper your one dollar worth of advice. Share views and paths to gainful dreams. This is no call to encourage youth to lead a dull life. There is abundant gain in constructive recreation and fun without installing yourselves Queens and Kings of Sodoma and Gomora. Someone please light my pipe for me.
