South Africans must rise to protect its future and that of its children

30-August-2016

The African National Congress Youth League is saddened and shocked at the discovery of 3000 under-age girls who were impregnated and now have children. Some have had to drop out of school at the Ratlou Municipality. These young girls, have been forced into motherhood against their will as they are clearly still minors, with their entire lives ahead of them. Even more shocking is that among these young girls, there is a 12-year-old who gave birth to a baby boy 6 months ago.

As the ANCYL, it has always been our firmly held view, through the words of our forebears, that a nation that does not take care of its youth does not deserve its future. This is more disgusting because the assessment by the Ministry of Social Development indicates that the culprits are older men that exploit the innocence of these young girls, having unprotected sex with them and some going to the extent of being raped.

It is only a sick society that harbors such acts of exploiting innocent young girls into having unprotected sex with them because the young girls fear for their well-being if they refuse. The buck also stops decisively on the doorstep of irresponsible parenting to allow the future of so many young girls to be taken away so brutally.

It is our firmly held view that fathers must become responsible men and not open up young women to sexual exploitation and equally not practice sexual exploitation of young women themselves. We equally call on mothers and sisters to stand strong in the fight against sexual abuse of young girls. No young girl asks to be sexually abused. We must be the first line of defense in protecting young girls because of their economic vulnerability and social exclusion.

The ANCYL will have a meeting with the Minister of Police to speak about the issue of these 3000 young girls. The purpose of the meeting is to lobby the ministry to set up a task team to hunt down these elderly people who impregnated these young girls. We view this act as a criminal act that needs decisive action from government. We cannot have a Boko Haram-like situation unchecked haphazardly in our country.

This gruesome act must be combated with the full might of the law everywhere where it raises its ugly head. This Task Team must not become another “Lame duck” toothless Task Team. The terms of reference must be to clearly arrest elders that have impregnated these 3 000 young girls.

The ANCYL is very proud of the ANC Youth League in Tshwane and COSAS for responding with speed against racism in Pretoria Girls High School. We also support the actions that have been taken by the provincial Department of Education. The ANC Youth League is very disgusted by the level of racism that is consistently popping up in our country. We call on all regions and structures of the ANCYL and the PYA to expose acts of racism throughout the country. It is the view of the ANC Youth League that the process to criminalize racism must start before the end of they year. We salute the gallant effort by the young girls of PGHS for standing up for what is correct and what is right. The ANCYL encourages pupils across the country enrolled in similar institutions to speak out against injustice and racism.

Issued by Mlondi Mkhize, National Spokesperson, ANCYL, 31 August 2016