A Realogile High School matriculant stole the limelight of a different kind at a City of Johannesburg Young Women’s Event when she narrated the ordeal of her teenage pregnancy.
The pupil, who preferred not to be named and photographed, said she had been warned several times by her mother to stay away from boys and she urged her to concentrate on her books.
“Boys will always be there when you have finished school and you have obtained your varsity qualifications, and can now stand on your own two feet and face the world,” she quoted her mother as telling her.
“But I didn’t listen to her and the inevitable happened to me last year,” she said. “I fell pregnant in Grade 11 and when I told my mother she asked me to pack my bags and get out of her house.”
The pupil said she was lucky because when she told her boyfriend about her pregnancy, he accepted her and the responsibility.
The girl said she felt lonely and depressed as she could not go to school or see her schoolmates anymore. “I then decided to commit suicide,” she said.
She purchased a poison commonly known in African societies as ‘halephirimi’, which literally means this poison will finish you off before sunset. “I drank this poison and the next thing I woke up in a hospital bed.
“I was lucky I never died and my baby wasn’t harmed as well, but the loneliness deepened in hospital as nobody came to see me except for my boyfriend’s mother. I felt lonely and longed for parents, friends and relatives,” she said.
She eventually made amends with her family and relatives but not before she had learnt her lesson. “The reason why I am telling you all this is so that you do not fall into the same trap as me. Do not dismiss the advice you get from the elders.
“Stay away from boys but mind your books and concentrate on your education. As my mother always said, boys will be there when you are done with your education.”
