Patrice Lumumba Avenue (formerly Third Avenue) in Harare’s Avenues areas has had its landmark figures missing for the past few days.
Known as KuTouchline because of the commercial sex workers who usually openly ply their trade there, the road has been cleared of the women after unidentified individuals driving a Raptor vehicle allegedly assaulted sex workers.
Images seen by Zim Now show the targets of the thrashings exposing severe bruises in the buttocks, legs, and arms areas.
“They just arrive suddenly in their black Raptor and begin beating people,” said one survivor of the beatings.
The survivor said the assailants were targeting those who loiter on the streets for whatever purpose including sex workers and men who clean vehicles for a living.
A lone sex worker who was operating along the street on Wednesday afternoon said the assailants were bent on punishment and only those who managed to run away were spared the brutal beatings.
"They didn't explain why they were beating people and many of us doesn’t know why they were beating people," she said.
She said the other sex workers were staying away because they had either been beaten severely or were afraid. "You never know what time they are going to come and beat us, so everyone is scared,” she said.
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The sex worker said she had braved the streets because she had no choice. “The situation we face at home, you have to make a plan so that you continue earning money for survival," she said.
She said other sex workers had gone fully digital to avoid the “Thrashline” and regular clients can still find them on platforms like WhatsApp.
A man who runs an informal car wash business on the streets alleged that the beatings were linked to an anti-drug cleanup and some of the sex workers had been implicated in the chain.
“When they beat us, they were asking us to tell them who is selling drugs in the area. X (a named individual) who was dealing drugs here disappeared on the first day of the raid and he has not been back," said the source.
Zim Now was unable to verify claims that some affected sex workers had filed reports of the assault at Harare Central Police Station as ZRP Harare Public Relations indicated that they had no report of any such assaults.
Zim Now audiences on WhatsApp had divergent opinions on the matter. One woman said she felt that it was good for sex workers to be beaten because they are homewreckers.
But most people said that the beatings are just plain abuse and sex workers should be prosecuted according to the law and any moral censure should be equally distributed to include their clients who come looking for service.
For now the Touchline, and indeed most of the Avenues area, is a sprinting race track for those who do not want to be thrashed.
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