Theft of stock and extortion are also issues that reflect gender injustices affecting street vendors. In Bulawayo, for example, some men target women, offering them‘protec­tion’ from the authorities in exchange for money. As one vendor testified,“Some men come early in the morning, demanding ZAR5 per vendor, claiming they can prevent the municipal police from chasing us xi .“Police officers also steal confiscated goods. One vendor said,“Sometimes they take sealed sacks of stock, but when we pay the fines and collect them, they are half-empty”. In Plumtree, officers illegally collect ZAR10 a day from female traders. This prompted members of parliament(MPs) to introduce a motion regarding the plight of female street vendors xii . MPs stressed that police officers target women’s money and goods for their own use, leaving desperate vendors with no source of income. Amidst all this, female street vendors face gender-based violence(GBV) in the workplace. Such violence is reflected in the term‘pahasha’(battle ground), which is used by single, married, young and elderly women to describe their workspaces. The Zimbabwe Republic Police(ZRP) and municipal police disrupt peaceful business through incessant raids. According to reports by the Swedish Development Forum(FUF) and New Zimbabwe, officers in Harare and Masvingo CBDs have injured women by chasing them through traffic, and by beating and shoving them to the ground during arrests. Officers also take cash bribes or demand sex from women seeking to avoid arrest and the confiscation of their goods xiii . This causes stress and reduces women’s earnings. When money for bribes is unavailable, sextortion becomes the order of the day. These cases of sexual harassment and sextortion most acutely reflect the gender inequities characterising street vending. In Bulawayo, women revealed that they are also sexually harassed by transport rank marshals and kombi conductors who operate near their vending spaces. Barons who hoard vending bays also demand sex in exchange for vending spaces. In Harare, interviewees concurred that, given the lack of toilets in undesignated vending spaces, women must use the same alleyways used by male vendors. Hence, males frequently walk in on women as they relieve themselves. Female vendors in Harare explained that“ We face a real danger of rape from the homeless and fellow male vendors in the alleyways where we urinate.” They even profess love just because they have seen you urinating, and when you refuse them, they insult you with vulgar language.” Police officers also touch female airtime vendors’ breasts and backsides under the pretext of searching for airtime vouchers to confiscate xiv . In what we term‘sextortion’, they demand sex from female street vendors in exchange for protection from arrest or the confiscation of their goods. Maria, a 36-year-old woman, fell victim to such demands from municipal officers in Harare xv . Indeed, this has always been a problem affecting female vendors specifically, dating back to the 1990s xvi . In urban areas of Zimbabwe, sextortion primarily affects younger street vendors, mostly aged between 18 and 48. Transparency International Zimbabwe(TIZ) revealed in its report that over 57% of women in the informal sector have experienced sextortion as the primary non-monetary bribe demanded by officials xvii . While female street vendors are particularly vulnerable due to the informal nature of their work, sextortion generally affects poor women who are forced to provide sexual favours in exchange for employment, medical care, educational placements or good grades. Sextortion is directly linked to the agenda of the fourth wave of feminism, so this is an issue that feminists must address to improve the conditions of street vendors. The gendered power dynamics involved in sextortion are downplayed by referring to it as“sexual corruption”. This term masks the vile form of gender-based violence that emanates from deeply entrenched patriarchal structures which normalise the exploitation of vulnerable women, such as street vendors. For these women,‘sextortion’ is about ‘coercion and lack of real choice’ xviii . Women’s strategies to survive on the harsh streets Female street vendors adopt various strategies to minimise their vulnerability. To avoid losing their goods and money, they hide them in‘runner’s’ shops and under parked vehicles. They also create the illusion that they are carrying babies by carrying their wares on their backs. They display their goods on a cloth with pull strings, which they quickly pull to form a bag for their goods and run. Other vendors, such as those selling skin-bleaching creams, display empty containers to avoid losing their stock during random raids. Many bribe the police, a practice known as‘kudhiza’ in Harare, to avoid arrest and confiscation of goods. Elderly women exaggerate their age, while in Harare, the hearing-impaired and speech-impaired feign confusion and helplessness and make confusing gestures to weaken the police’s resolve to arrest them xix . Feminism and the Informal Sector 3