The newly appointed MEC of health in the Eastern Cape, Ntandokazi Capa, took a scythe to a school in the province, excoriating the girls for prematurely falling pregnant.
In what some will see as a sanctimonious address, Capa said: “You can have children later. Don’t you want your friends to host baby showers for you? We cannot host baby showers for teens who are children themselves. You also want to go to university. Now you are limiting your choices.”
Speeches are all well and good, but what tangible action has the department of basic education taken to ensure that there is a deterrent to the pregnancies that are recorded year in and out? Words indeed are cheap.
Communicating the undesirability of unplanned teenage pregnancy to young people is great and commendable. But we need to ask the question: who is addressing the broader community that is engaged in illegal sexual relations with these minors and why is no-one arrested for the crime of statutory rape?
We do need to decry the high prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in the country which leads to young girls being trapped in cycles of poverty and forced to drop out of school. But surely that is not the whole plan. It can’t be.
Capa’s tongue-lashing follow the Daily Dispatch newspaper’s report that the Eastern Cape is riddled with the scourge, with more than 4,000 girls aged between 10 and 19 giving birth since the beginning of the financial year in April.
The MEC is right to warn them of the degenerative consequences of early reproduction and urging the boys to use condoms. The truth though is that the burden almost always rests with the young girls.
When is Capa and everyone else who sanctimoniously talks down to girls because they have the burden to carry the evidence of their sexual activities, going to excoriate police for a lack of arrests, let alone convictions, for those who impregnate minors? The message that they should look forward to university and have big and beautiful dreams is welcomed, but the implementation of interventions is equally important.
Capa, like many in her position, should know better. Rather than just describing the smoke, she should recognise there is a fire, and get to the source and put it out.
Perhaps we should also ask whether the department is resourced enough to provide basic awareness and support to these minors, especially in high-risk areas that lead in these statistics regularly? Does the department of basic education really see this as a problem requiring a solution? Is the issue of teenage pregnancy in schools a priority or is it all just fluff? But who is to incur Capa’s wrath for not appropriately resourcing the department?
If the government was serious about fighting heinous crimes such as gender-based violence and rape, they would have implemented the National Policy on the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy as well as prosecuted the perpetrators.
If pupils had proper access to sexual and reproductive health information and skills, accurate knowledge about delayed sexual debut, abstinence and contraception and information about the role of gender and power in relationships, we would not be here. More importantly if the adults around them saw to it that they are safe and the government is proactive, this would not be a crisis.
We can only hope that the new leaders in the various education departments and related stakeholders will see to the success of the policy framework and get culprits behind bars. The future of children should concern us all.
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