ANC Women’s League statement on the prevalence high of teenage pregnancy

14 August 2024

The ANC Women's League celebrates the month of August in remembrance of the heroic sacrifices of formidable struggles pursued by colossal women such as Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph and Sophia De Bruyn.

These elephantine women of yesteryear have desolated their youthful lives for pursuance of the struggle against poverty, visible inequality, a human rights culture and an end to patriarchy.

We therefore acknowledge the advances made in our political progression as we observe this year's Women's Month under the theme "Celebrating 30 years of Democracy Towards Women's Development" However, the ANC Women's League is perturbed by the alarming statistics of teenage pregnancy where children are prematurely becoming parents when they still have to be parented themselves.

Teenage pregnancy continues to trap young girls in a vicious cycle of poverty, lack of educational prospects and persistence of under-development.

Our govemment is already under enormous financial pressure as a result of the global fiscal instability and the consequence of teenage pregnancy will certainly result in a massive increase in digging deeper into the state revenue.

Scientific evidence informs us that both KwaZuIu/NataI and the Eastem Cape Provinces are leading the pack with the highest number of girls as young as age ten (10), who have given birth in the past few months.

It is evident that social ills which continue to plague our society have made significant contributions to these alarming statistics, and in a social dialogue convened by the Department of Education and Social Development respectively in the Eastern Cape, some of these challenges were identified.

We must applaud the commitment from the newly appointed Eastern Cape Health MEC, Comrade Ntandokazi Capa who affirmed to fill the vacant positions for Chief Executive Officers (CEO) within six (6) months, and we genuinely anticipate these measures sooner than later.

Thus, the ANC Women's League calls for a social compact in bringing every sector of our society to assist in addressing these challenges, and further appeal for an inter-departmental collaboration between the government's Health, Basic Education, Social Development and other relevant stakeholders to unleash discemible measures to deter this prevalence.

We therefore advocate for constant awareness from the foundation phase of our education system, to ensure gradual nurturing as we raise both the girl and the boy child.

The degeneration in morality conjoined with socio-economic disparities and socially misconstrued cultural norms and practices have been contributing factors to the high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the country.

Also factoring in the calamity, is the lack of adequate care, parental supervision, lack of factual education on sexual reproductive health which remains a forbidden subject in some African households and that lingers to unfortunate circumstances.

The continuation of patriarchal tendencies and ill-conceived cultural practices are pertinent to this anomaly and they should be exclaimed with profound contempt as they purport our cultural heritage whilst leading to repugnant repercussions to young women.

The socially acceptable norm of "blessers" where elderly men entices young girls with money, expensive alcohol, opulent clothing and other exorbitant accessories is a perpetual factor to social deviance.

The ANC Women's League shall not rest to assert our unshaken position against any form of injustice that seeks to derail the future of our children, and we appeal once more to all our communities to hold hands in finding workable propositions to this adversity.

We cannot be inarticulate when the future of our young girls who are potential leaders and technocrats of tomorrow goes astray. It is therefore upon us as mothers and society at large to mitigate with every possible intercession to reclaim our humanity.

The ANC Women's League shall proceed to advance our lobby to all patriots to mobilise every possible resource to save our country and children and to safeguard their future and a better life for all.

MALIBONGWE!!!

Issued by Nokuthula Nqaba on behalf of ANCWL, 14 August 2024