Teenage pregnancies: A call for action

EXPERTS have warned that many teenage pregnancies in South Africa are actually statutory rapes, and society needs to be vigilant and report "the so-called blessers" who are destroying the lives of young girls, if the country is to win the war against the scourge.

- GCWALISILE KHANYILE

They were reacting to the recent stats by the Department of Health that on Christmas Day alone, showing that more than 130 teenagers gave birth, compared to 90 on the same day in 2024.

Experts said that while one day's data cannot, on its own, confirm the "normalisation" of early motherhood, it does raise important psychological and social questions about how teenage pregnancy is increasingly experienced in certain communities.

Bafana Khumalo, co-executive director of NGO Sonke Gender Justice, said many of these teenage pregnancies are actually statutory rapes and encouraged communities to report intergenerational sexual engagements to the police as outlined by various laws related to children.

"The challenge is that communities look the other way and allow perpetrators to get away with it. In some instances, it is parents who are most likely due to poverty, who are keen to look the other way because those men provide remittances to the families," Khumalo said.

He added that some of these teenage pregnancies are among peers who are experimenting, which has prompted Sonke's Men Care programme, which provides life skills for young men on positive parenting.