More than 5 000 schoolgirls in the Northern Cape have fallen pregnant between April 2020 and June this year.
The provincial Education Department has raised concerns about the alarming number of pregnant teenagers saying some are as young as ten.
MEC Zolile Monakali says they have invested in life skill programmes to support learners.
“When the pandemic started up to the end of June this year, we recorded 5015 pregnant cases of girls between the ages of ten and nineteen and of those 154 is accounted for by girls between the ages of ten and fourteen that is a big concern for our education system.”
Monakali says they are also dealing with teachers who have been charged with sexually assaulting learners.
“Currently in the Northern Cape Department of Education, we are attending to five cases which involve educators and learners. When educators are found guilty in such cases, it is a dismissible offence, we even go so far as to contact the South African Council of Educators to scrap their names from the educators roll.”
Soul City Institute not shocked by high teen-pregnancy numbers in Gauteng
Soul City Institute CEO Phinah Kodisang says this is a reflection of how the country continues to fail children.
“For us as Soul City Institute it’s not a shock. We know this has been an ongoing problem. The numbers have been escalating probably because of COVID-19. But this problem has been a standing problem. And because we do not call it what it is, it’s statutory rape when a 10 or 14-year-old is having sex. Because the age of consent in South Africa is 16 years.”
DISCUSSION | Shocking numbers of teenage pregnancies in Gauteng:
