Lovelife Centre

TEENAGE PREGNANCY COMES AT A HIGH PRICE, BOTH ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY

While there are no silver bullets to solve complex problems like teenage pregnancy, we must never make the mistake of misdiagnosing the pervasive issues that characterize the problem. Since the Gauteng Department of Health published the report last month that more that 23,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 fell pregnant between April 2020 and March 2021 – loveLife has been metabolizing the issues emerging from talk radio and social media. Interestingly, we have observed that South Africans are not particularly outraged enough about the impregnation of 10 to 12-year-olds. South Africa, how did we get here? Where 10-year-olds are characterized as teenagers and we are ok with it? Where we are told that more than 900 children between the ages of 10 and 14 were impregnated and we don’t demand justice as the law is unambiguous about statutory rape as far as children in concerned? Where accountability seems to be the last thing we demand from those responsible with following through to ensure children are protected or at least once known that they are in harm’s way – should be removed from those environments? Perhaps we must first acknowledge that although the reported numbers may be shocking, the problem of teenage pregnancy is not new and not just numbers, but real people and lives that are left devastated. Secondly, we must acknowledge that – that this problem persists – adults in our country are failing the children terribly. Thirdly, we must acknowledge that if the adults in our society are just happy to tweet their outrage and not demand justice for children – we are not just derelict but killing the souls of our children and stunting their future. Fourthly, we must acknowledge that as long as Gender Based Violence (GBV) remains under addressed in our country – we will always be back here – shocked and dismayed. Fifthly, and most importantly, we must acknowledge that the failure to reduce poverty and inequality in our country we will continue to deepen the problem as studies have shown the causal links between the two and teenage pregnancy. Now the question maybe – where do we start to address this teenage pregnancy challenge? With more 20 years’ experience of running programmes for young people between the ages of 10 to 24, LoveLife has seen how effective multisectoral approaches can be in dealing with complex problems such as teenage pregnancy. Therefore, the first place to start is to fix our broken system by continuously hold the role players and actors in the youth ecosystem accountable. For instance, the Department of Health personnel that become aware of pregnant girl children under 12 must report the matter to the South African Police Services as it is a case of statutory rape. Then, the police must investigate and the National Prosecuting Authority must prosecute the perpetrators and record them in the National Register of Sex offenders. The same must also apply to any underage girl that is impregnated. While at it, the Department of Basic Education must enforce the recently amended Employment of Educators Act which empowers the department to dismiss and never again employ any educator found guilty of a sexual misconduct with a learner. Evidently, there is no lack of legislative instruments in our country to either protect the children or create environments designed to prevent teenage pregnancy, but the pervasive issue is that of systemic unwillingness to act. This unwillingness keeps breaking our values while keeping us in the vicious cycle. While civil society players are a critical collaborator in the ecosystem to protect the girl child, we must force the hand of government in cases it moves slower on. We must utlise our stakeholder engagement platforms to deal with challenges, and in cases where there seems to be deliberate dragging of feet, we may have to litigate. A step that no one ever wants to pursue because whenever we work with government – it is on the principle of working together in the best interest of the girl child. Of course, parents and guardians who shield the perpetrators of sexual assault on girl children all in the name of alleviating poverty must be held accountable for their complicity. While it is well known fact that the prevalence of pregnancies among adolescent girls living in adverse social conditions and environmental influence are typically driven by poverty, a lack of education and employment opportunities – we should never normalize the prostitution of girl children. If girl children are to have any future to talk of, my compatriots must rise to demand justice and each role player accountable. The South Africa we want is one where teenage pregnancy becomes the least of our problem, where government and business does more than enough to reduce poverty and inequality by respectively creating enabling environment for prosperous economy and creating sustainable jobs for many. Solving the poverty and inequality problem may not be the panacea, but it definitely is the beginning of removing the biggest hurdle in the journey towards protecting girl children and breaking the vicious cycle to help secure their futures. If we don’t, we will have to pay a very high price – both economically and socially.
Ends…
Dr Ncube-Nkomo is the CEO of the New LoveLife Trust