At 16, | became a mother: a Chatsworth teen’s raw story of struggle and hope

'SCARED TO DEATH'

- YOSHIN! PERUMAL

TENISHA Naidoo" shares her story of being a teenage mother.

(YOSHINI PERUMAL)

A 16-YEAR-OLD Chatsworth girl reveals her harrowing journey into teenage motherhood after school bullying led her to drop out and fall pregnant to a 25-year-old man.

Now surviving on a child grant of R550 per month and fearing social workers might take her baby, she shares her story while trying to build a future for herself and her daughter.

Tenisha Naidoo (not her real name) fell pregnant when she was 15 and gave birth to a healthy baby girl in August.

She said she lived in fear daily that her baby would be taken away from her by welfare authorities.

“That is the price I have to pay for becoming a mother while under the legal age for consensual sex. The father of my baby is an unemployed man from the community who does not support us. I met him soon after I dropped out of school last year,” she said.

Tenisha was not included in the 7 627 recorded teenage pregnancies data in the eThekwini Municipality for the period April 2024 to April 2025.

She only found out she was pregnant in July, one month before she delivered her baby.

The statistics were released in May this year at a teenage pregnancy indaba hosted by the municipality.

The municipality also cited Chatsworth as a high burden area, with a high number of pupil pregnancies from January to March 2025.

Tenisha said she never thought she would become a statistic, even though she chose to have unprotected sex.

“IT was bullied in school last year because I had nits and lice. The principal asked me to shave my head or I would not be allowed to write the third-term exams.