By Sbongile Dimbaza
At the tender age of 13, when most girls are still cuddling their dolls and braiding their hair, Suzy has been a prostitute for two years.
She is paid R10 for sex. But included in the deal is an extra R5 for her younger brother Fred, who waits quietly for her outside the door while she is with "a client".
Suzy (not her real name) is one of a "skyrocketing" number of South African children who have resorted to prostitution in a desperate and tragic bid for survival. Drugs and alcohol help to dull their pain.
"There's nothing fun about street life and what I was doing was the worst," the sad and deeply scarred child said this week.
The siblings currently live at the Siyakhuthala Overnight Centre in Korsten in Port Elizabeth and, for the moment, Suzy has been able to put her sickening career behind her.
But the ravages of her childhood haunt her face. Under the careful eye of the centre's Dr Trudie Basson, she describes her horrific past, fidgeting constantly but never far from her younger brother, who runs his hands constantly up and down her back as she talks.
Their bond seems to give her strength to speak out about her past, although there are some questions she refuses to answer.
"The streets are not your average place. It's where your dreams are dashed because all you're obsessed with is making money for the next loaf of bread," she says.
Suzy and Fred left home two years ago because their mother, whom they describe as an alcohol abuser, beat them. Their father never "once stopped our mom from beating us".
They lived on the streets and found shelter in dilapidated buildings, learned to "hustle the streets and make some money" to support themselves.
But living on the streets turned out to be a lot more difficult than the children had thought it would be. Her dark journey started on the streets of Missionvale, when a man asked her for a "sexual favour".
Desperate for money, she agreed. Soon, more men began to show up.
"Although our family life was bad, it did not equal what I had to go through while I was out in the street," Suzy says.
"I had to support my brother and take some money home to support my family. I hate my mother - but I have no grudge against my pa.
"There's nothing fun about street life and what I was doing was the worst.
"But I have never been raped or beaten by (clients)," she said.
"For a time of fun with a client I got between R5 and R10. Freddy on the side benefited in the trade because he usually pocketed R5 for waiting outside the door until the business was concluded," she said.
Many other children at Siyakhuthala have been victims of sex abuse, although many did not want to talk about it, some admitting they had been victims of paedophiles who would "tickle our private parts".
While some children at the centre are often visited by their parents, others like Suzy and Fred say they are much better off at the centre because it provides them with the love and support they never received while still living with their parents.
Basson, who runs the centre, said children who were abused at home tended to hold back if you want to give them a hug or tuck them in bed.
"But there are those who cling on to you if you give them a hug because they long for love, warmth and family environment."
She lambasted the public and government for failing to assist in curbing child prostitution and other child-related abuses.
"The problem is skyrocketing and if government and public intervention continues to be non-existent, this will spiral out of hand.
"We are a really passive nation because if communities stood up and ensured that kids are taken to centres and refrained from giving them money, they won't have a reason to live on the streets," Basson said.
Humewood Community Forum chairperson John Preller said child prostitution was becoming a common phenomenon in poor areas where children were hungry.
"There is a huge problem of children who go missing and of parents who do not account for their children's whereabouts. There are hundreds of homeless children who roam the streets.
"Home is where children should get warmth, love and guidance. But if a child has been beaten and insulted for no reason, that environment changes from being called a home," he said.
"The country's prosperity is measured by the health of its children. And when children suffer it is a tragedy to the whole country.
"The government needs to come down hard on criminals who prey on innocent children," Preller said.