Many studies have concluded that a consumerist culture was driving transactional sex (when money or goods are exchanged for sex). The study presented in Durban by Yanga Zembe of the Medical Research Council gave a glimpse into some of the potential drivers of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

Zembe revealed that few of the young women in their study opted for condoms when engaging in transactional sex ‘€“ 63% of the women surveyed said they were not using a condom with their main partner even though over 70% thought their man had other partners at the same time.

Zembe and colleagues surveyed young women in the 16 to 24 year age group which has been shown by many studies to be high risk HIV group in South Africa with prevalence pegged at 16,9%, four times higher than men in the same age group.

The women surveyed lived in a peri-urban informal settlement in Cape Town with a population of over 20 000 and an unemployment rate of 33%. The women who participated all reported having more than one sexual partner in the last three months.

The majority was students and just over 5% were HIV positive. Over 50% of these women reported having seven or more sexual partners in the past three months.

The majority of the woman had sex with men who were five years or older than them while a high percentage reported being slapped, hit with the fist or being victims of forced sex at the hands of their main partner over the past 12 months.

Almost 90% of the women reported having used alcohol in the last three months while just over half confirmed that they had consumed five or more beers or ciders or tots during the one drinking session.

Around 52% reported going to shebeens to meet potential partners while 37% said they went to ‘€œbraai’€ venues.

Almost 80% of the women said they would not engage in sex if the money was not good while the same number of women confirmed that they had transactional sex in the last three months.

The main currency in the transactional sex was money while cellphone vouchers were another popular exchange.

‘€œIt is clear that transactional sex is widespread, it is normative behavior for these women and it is linked to a risk element as condom use is low,’€ said Zembe.

She said even relatively ‘€œnon-poor’€ women were likely to engage in transactional sex despite the traditional thoughts that it was mainly driven by survival. ‘€œIn a way it could be survival as women participate to survive social pressures to look a certain way,’€ Zembe added.

She cautioned that the group may not be representative, but that the anecdotal evidence was there that it was not something that was just done by ‘€œsome’€.