It is child rape, not ‘pupil pregnancy’  

While there was much to celebrate with the Independent Board of Examinations and National Senior Certificate results, there is a dark shadow hovering in the background.

Department of basic education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said during a briefing “pupil pregnancy is a huge social problem”.

What he didn’t say was it is growing every year. And what he should have called it is child rape, instead of the “pupil pregnancy” euphemism.

Last year, on 16 January, we reported on how Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba was slammed by some organisations over her “open your books and close your legs” comments to schoolgirls.

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Ramathuba defended her comments and stated she had said to the boys to “sleep with their books, not girls”.

“… show me a boy child who has lost their education and their futures because they impregnated a girl. On the other side, I will show you so many girls – because they don’t have anyone to look after their kids,” she said at the time.

Yes, Ramathuba could have been less sweeping in her statements and noted how rampant rape is in South Africa.

But we need to call it what it is as the time for speaking politely is over.

There is no shortage of men with wads of cash to lure naive girls or make promises they never intend to fulfil of a better life to young girls living in grinding poverty.

Nelson Mandela once said there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

Statistics SA reported 4 042 recorded live births by children aged 10 to 14, and 138 662 live births by children aged 15-19 in 2021.

It is extraordinarily hard being a child today, and we need extraordinary measures to protect them. We can’t afford to not protect children anymore.

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