Ex-prostitute tells tale of redemption

[caption id="attachment_94535" align="alignright" width="300"] Vera Qwesha with a book she has written about her life[/caption]

VERA Qwesha told people she sold designer handbags – preferring to lie about her secret life.

But deep down the former Port Elizabeth prostitute knew her lifestyle would one day destroy her.

Making up to R60 000 a week in her heyday, Qwesha, 40, who went by the name “Brazilian Coloured”, knows more than most about the sleazy world of drugs, sex and scandalous behaviour.

She also knows what it is like to find God and to walk away from easy money – as detailed in her new book, My Journey: From Grass to Grace.

Qwesha, who grew up in Kwazakhele, hopes the book will serve as a warning – and inspire others to live a better life.

Petite, pretty and an elegant dresser, it is hard to imagine that Qwesha used to spend her time using drugs with strangers who paid her for sex.

Today the woman, who before becoming a prostitute graduated from NMMU with a politics degree, is the epitome of elegance and confidence.

While working as a makeup artist and earning little, she met a wealthy Port Elizabeth businessman to whom she later got engaged and with whom she had a child.

However the relationship was not as rosy as she thought it would be. She claims he was abusive and possessive. Qwesha refused to name her former fiancé. “He was jealous and abusive. He often had a temper and would beat me up, but the last straw for me was when he threw a brick at me. It hit me on my back,” Qwesha said.

As a result, she was in a wheelchair for six months. “I realised this man would never change, and if I didn’t get out of the relationship I would die.”

Qwesha had lived a lavish life with her fiancé and they had a daughter.

As a result of the breakup, she struggled to make ends meet and was lured into prostitution by friends from Johannesburg.

-Melitta Ngalonkulu