Woman forced into prostitution by hubby

By Nancy Malwele A woman of Chanida in Eastern Province has abandoned her polygamous husband of two years after he forced her into prostitution and lived off her earnings. Marian Mbewe 30, a mother of two, told the New Vision that her husband Tungani Zulu forced her into prostitution saying that he often used to beat her up when she refused to engage in sexual acts with other men.

She said her husband behaved like her ‘pimp’; he would buy nice clothes for her, take her to shebeens, get her drank and arrange for intimate meetings with other men. She resisted Zulu’s demand to get into prostitution at first but that she eventually gave in. “Zulu is unemployed and he only survives by doing temporal jobs for survival. I was his second wife and I doubt his love for me. We would only have one meal in a day and because of poverty, he encouraged his friend to have an affair with me but when I turned him down, Zulu was infuriated and beat me up because his friend had already given him money,” Mbewe alleged. When she refused, he would start punching her and slapping her and that he once broke her teeth. This forced the two to go on separation. She said that on one occasion, she had returned and agreed to give him another chance but that after a few days, he would take her to the shebeens where he would get her drank as he organised sexual encounters. Zulu would charge men and keep all the money. In one month, Mbewe had protected sexual encounters with 10 men but that her husband never shared the money with her and stopped sharing the same bed with her as he used all she earned on the locally brewed beer Kachasu. “I did prostitution for a month and I decided to leave Zulu after he told me that he married me so that I could help him meet his expenses,” she said. “I only agreed to do this because I’m an orphan and I had nowhere to go but I quit the trade and I’m currently staying with my long distant relative,” she said. She further said that her husband has never bothered to reconcile or look for her..

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