Teen pregnancy is a curse of the poor

It sounds shocking – and it is. One in every 18 teenage girl pupils at Ithuteng Secondary School in Randfontein is pregnant.

And those 34 have fallen pregnant despite the best efforts of the school principal, teachers, parents, education department officials, religious organisations, NGOs, female police officers and nurses to encourage safe sex.

The school, though, is but a microcosm of the broader South Africa, where teenage pregnancy and single parenting are part of the social fabric.

One of the reasons is the grinding poverty in urban shack communities and rural villages, where young girls are often the heads of households and are prey for any older man with a bit of money, never mind the undisciplined boys around them.

It is also apparent that conventional morality has taken a pounding in modern-day South Africa, where sex is regarded as a recreational activity and sexually transmitted diseases mean little.

Education, at all levels, is failing to curb this reckless behaviour.

Unless the poverty gap is dealt with, we fear, the curse will be with us for years, or generations, to come.

And, make no mistake, it is a curse.

The more people we have, the further our resources have to stretch and the worse poverty will become.

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