According to Statistics South Africa, there were 207 marriages weddings in 2021. This was revealed to the African Union (AU) Special Rapporteur, who is now in South Africa to track and assess the country’s progress in its drive to end child marriages.
Stats SA’s Director of Education and Child Statistics, Dr. Seble Worku, reveals in a statement that of the 207 child marriages that had been officially documented, 188 were brides and 19 were grooms. She further states that 37 of the child marriages were registered as civil marriages and 19 were customary.
Dr Worku has found that while children in low-income homes increased from 2.6 million to 4 million, pensions and grants remained the primary source of income for children in rural areas.
However, Stats SA indicates that the number of children who lived with only their mothers continued to rise in the country while number of orphaned children declined to 11.5 % in 2021 from 14.3 % in 2002.
Monitoring
An AU mission is conducting a monitoring visit on the progress that South Africa has made to end child marriages and harmful cultural practices against children.
The mission started its series of high-level engagements with the departments of social development, basic education, home affairs, women, youth and persons with disabilities.
The delegation will engage human rights institutions, Civil Society Organisations and conclude with a session with children on Tuesday.
These engagements will focus on child rights to capture current progress, challenges, best practices, lessons learned and make recommendations for fast-tracking progress to end violence against women and children.
The mission will also go to Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Madagascar, Tunisia, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles, and Namibia.
