We are enablers in the crisis of child moms

We have been grappling with the reality of statutory rape for years. It’s not new.

We can all agree that the number of children giving birth is appalling. But the real problem is this: we are enablers.

In the North West province, a 16-year-old girl gave birth to her second child in two years, which means she was only 14 when she had her first baby. The father? A 35-year-old man.

In the Eastern Cape, a 12 year old gave birth on New Year’s Day. That is a Grade 7 pupil. A child who should be busy with dolls but instead became a mother.

This didn’t start yesterday. It’s been happening for a while. Go to any high school in South Africa and you’ll find a bigger list.

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According to Amnesty International, the number of births to girls aged 10 to 14 in the country increased by 48.7% between April 2017, and September 2021.

While we applaud Limpopo premier Phophi Ramathuba saying health care workers who do not report teenage pregnancies were equally secondary raping children and indirectly protecting men who impregnate them, this sudden “awakening” by government and officials is a mediocre response.

The law for statutory rape to be a criminal offence in South Africa was amended in 2007, but since then, what have we done? Where are the arrests? The prosecutions?

The other day I was walking out of a mall when I saw three girls – no older than 15 – passing by a car. The men in the car, who looked mature, begun driving behind them in pursuit. The girls giggled, clearly enjoying the attention.

And that’s how it starts. We’ve seen it. The truth is, you probably know someone who has done it, who only dates young girls because the “agemates are boring”.

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These 14 year olds enter high school and are tricked into thinking they’re the hottest thing on the block. How many times have we heard of the school transport driver who gets new Grade 8 girls to skip school and wind up in the back of his car, drinking and engaging in sex?

Men on social media defend themselves with lousy excuses like “Girls like older men” or “They lie about their age”. No, chances are, they know the girl’s age and see nothing wrong.

These girls don’t know better. The truth is we are enablers. We have failed as a society. From a community and government perspective, from a school and parental perspective. We have failed.

We have so much learning and unlearning to do as a society.

A medical doctor on X shared how she assisted a 16-year-old girl in labour. The father is 27. He also infected her with HIV and syphilis. When the doctor suggested opening a case, the girl and her mother refused – because who would support the baby financially if the father was jailed?

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The problem isn’t just education or awareness – it’s about enforcing the law. Family members from both sides must be arrested for not reporting this crime to the police. It shouldn’t stop there: government needs to investigate the role of health officials in concealing these cases because they have a duty to report them.

And where are the police? Even though statutory rape is underreported and seldom prosecuted, they should be all over our television screens, yet they’re nowhere to be found.

In 2023, I repeatedly tried to find out the number of teenage pregnancies, how many girls were under 16 and what was done to charge the perpetrator. I got no answers.

Why don’t we have dedicated statistics on statutory rape? These are buried within rape statistics.

We need to see ourselves as part of the problem.

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