It's more a rape crisis than it is about teenage pregnancy

Words by Brenda Madumise-Pajibo & Onica N Makwakwa

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In December of 2019, we ventured out on a roadtrip to Mafikeng in the North West Province where we were to meet with teenage mothers who had agreed to share their stories with us. The interest to meet with these girls, whose identity we will keep anonymous here, was sparked by a number of schools reporting high rates of girls being pregnant in what seemed to be within a simultaneous timeframe. More specifically, it was the Parliamentary session where Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, was questioned about the number of pregnant school girls and she reported that 121,099 girls ages 10 to 19 had fallen pregnant within a 12-month period. Below is the breakdown by province and age categories of 10 to 14 years as well as those 15 to 19 years. 

Although the news reporting seemed to always be sensational with high focus on the girls’ ages, usually from 10 to 17, there was usually nothing reported about the boys or men who would be responsible for these pregnancies. In fact, all the focus, responsibility and speculation seemed to center around the girls, their economic background, morals, etc., while the male counterparts in these pregnancies enjoyed great impunity, privacy and no public demands for accountability. 

Similarly, the recent reporting on the 23,266 pregnant girls in Gauteng schools, that grabbed headlines, fell into similar tropes of reporting by focusing on the girls’ pregnancies and even leading to MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s announcement where he was advocating for an introduction of a new curriculum that would focus on stemming these high rates of teenage pregnancy. 

Yet what all of this is missing are two very important yet commonly ignored facts: (1) that girls don’t fall pregnant by themselves and that (2) the legal age of consent is 16 years. 

Firstly, ignoring the role of boys/men in these pregnancies only serves to further their lack of accountability towards children which destroys many families and communities and maintain’s South Africa’s state of fatherlessness.

Second, since children under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to sex, it goes without saying that the pregnancies of children ages 10 to 16 years should be investigated and even reported as statutory rape cases rather than a teenage pregnancy crisis alone. Failure to do so, contributes to the rape culture that blames girls and women for sexual violations, burdens them with their own protection and contributes towards complacency and impunity on rape among the men who commit these crimes. 

Back to the young mothers we met in Mafikeng, ages 14 to 17, we learned that in cases where the fathers responsible for the pregnancies were also young school age boys, it is mostly the family of the girls who took care of the healthcare, financial and emotional responsibilities associated with the pregnancy and the feeding and caring of the newborn. Of those impregnated by men who were not fellow pupils, the average age of the men was 26 years with similar narratives of having been in town on short-term contract, mostly construction, had affairs with the girls and left them pregnant never to return and mostly with no contactable information. It is important to note that these adult men knowingly had sex with underage girls as young as 13 years old, a criminal sexual violation known as statutory rape. 

Continuing to refer to this statutory rape crisis as a teenage crisis, is a reflection of how much more still needs to be done to heighten our awareness and understanding of gender based violence

In conclusion, it is important to recognize that this is a rape crisis rather than teenage pregnancy crisis and begin to not only call it that but also respond to it as prescribed in exisitng laws. We must all recognize that it is going to take all estimated 58 million South Africans to arrest this scourge of GBV and therefore we all have a civic duty to act towards building a brand South Africa whose culture rebukes the sexual violation of children without favor. 

  • Teachers, social workers and healthcare professionals, in the recently amended GBV bills, more specifically the Sexual Offenses Act, are among the class of mandatory reporters of abuse. Even while the implementation details and regulations are being finalized, this is an opportune moment for these professionals to lead with a duty of care and not only report but also follow-up on any and all incidents where they encounter a pregnant child. Basic education must lead and governing bodies have duty to inquire, investigate and report incidents of rape. 

  • Parents, relatives and neighbors must equally rise up to the occasion, acting in advance to prevent such incidents but also inquire and report suspected incidents of sexual abuse and violations. Hiding behind cultural practices such as “paying damages” is being complicit in rape and must end. 

  • Companies, especially those that bring groups of men into communities, have a responsibility to educate and their employers and to protect the affected communities. There must be an expected code of conduct while these men are on the remote working location that is no different from the responsibility employers assume when one is on business travel. Most importantly, they must have and enforce clear consequences when this code of conduct is violated. 

  • Police and prosecutors must work diligently to investigate and prosecute men who rape and impregnate children as prescribed by the law. 

The Wise CollectiveComment