I read a story in Southern Eye recently about an employer’s 13-year-old son, who impregnated a 27-year-old domestic worker.
Ropafadzo Mapimhidze
The domestic worker, who is apparently three months pregnant, started abusing the minor when he was 11 years old.
This woman, who had worked for this family for 10 years, confessed in court that she started bedding the boy in 2009.
The boy’s mother only discovered that her son was being sexually abused on March 28 this year when she realised that the domestic worker was pregnant.
Upon inquiring who was responsible, the mother was shocked to discover that it was her teenage son.
In a statement read in court, the boy said the domestic worker told him that she was pregnant and that he was going to be a father, but asked him not to tell anyone about the matter.
While I do not condone any action by this domestic worker, I think employers are sometimes to blame for creating such situations.
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There are so many under-age domestic workers employed in various homes that never get time off.
Sometimes, these young girls are drawn from the rural areas and do not have relatives nearby to visit and become prisoners in the homes they are employed.
These people are sometimes sexually abused by their male employers and other males residing at these homes, resulting in pregnancy.
Domestic workers become part of these families to the extent that some spouses pile all the work on these poor souls. Yes, this is actually true. It’s always: “Sisi do this. . . and sisi do that . . .” Damn!
Surely how can you allow a domestic worker choose your spouses’ clothing for the day, and also cook for the family all year round non-stop?
This particularly applies to non-working women, who, because their spouses are financially sound, have the privilege of employing a domestic helper.
It’s a different story for working women as they may be tired and also wanting some rest from the hustle and bustle of work schedules. But they too should not allow a situation where a domestic helper becomes totally in charge.
There are men out there who have since started directing queries involving the home front to the domestic helper because when they ask their spouses, they refer the matters to these workers.
The result is that these men slowly start resenting their wives and focus attention on the maid for anything to do with the home.
And, by the way, being a domestic worker doesn’t mean that they are lesser a human being than the wife who is a manager or professor at some university. A woman is just a woman regardless of social status.
Although this may be viewed as sexual abuse, which I do not personally condone, I think as women, we need to assert our rightful positions in the home.
Leaving everything to the domestic helper may result in such relationships developing and in some instances, may also start bedding the boy children in the home.
This happens because domestic workers are sometimes made to share a bedroom with male children and hence results in such problems.
I once heard of a domestic worker who was involved in sexual contact with a father and his two sons.
When she fell pregnant, it opened a Pandora’s box. It was such a messy affair because this domestic helper apparently tested positive, but she was unaware.
The head of the household also tested positive and so did his wife. The two boys were fortunately spared from contracting the disease.
Further investigations revealed that the domestic worker had actually lost her virginity to this respectable head of the home. That is when all hell broke loose.
Although the matter was settled out of court, the domestic helper, who was aged 17, continued living at the home she was employed because no one from her family was prepared to take her and the baby.
In yet another scene, a domestic worker enticed an employer’s son to sleep with her because she hardly was given time to go off and visit her relatives and boyfriend.
One day, the worker overslept in the boy’s bedroom, only to be woken by the woman of the house.
She lay stark nude next to her son. Fortunately, these two had apparently used protection, but she immediately lost her job.
The teenage boy then confessed that he had been doing this for nearly two years and explained that every time his parents went out to the rural areas, he would choose to remain home and be with the domestic worker.
Domestic helpers are just human like all of us. They need love and affection from the opposite sex. If that is denied, they will become amorous with any male resident at the house.
In yet another incident, a man living in one of the northern suburbs is known to get very angry when the domestic helper takes her off days. This is because; he has turned her into a comfort woman ever since his wife left for work overseas.
The relationship, it would seem, started when his wife was still around and when she suggested that the maid leaves when she was about to start her tour of duty abroad, the husband refused.
This young woman, according to people in the know, has allegedly conceived on several occasions and had back street abortions with the assistance of her employer.
But the reality is that boys and girls are becoming sexually active when they are hardly teenagers and so to solely blame these matters on the domestic workers is grossly unfair.
A British father recently told the Mailonline that he was “proud” of his 12-year-old daughter and there was “no shame” after she gave birth to her 13-year-old boyfriend’s baby — making them Britain’s youngest parents.
This is a fact that we may have to live with for a very long time because gone are the days when puberty started at 13 and above. Today’s children are maturing much earlier and in some instances at age 9.
