Grade 5 learner among 1 000 schoolgirls pregnant in Ekurhuleni last year

The Sowetan reports that Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina revealed on Tuesday that 1 000 schoolgirls, including a Grade 5 pupil, fell pregnant in the municipal area last year.

The mayor was reportedly speaking at a youth summit held in Boksburg yesterday, where he divulged that the figure was taken from 620 schools under the municipality’s jurisdiction.

Masina blamed “the cult of blessers” for the shocking figures of teen pregnancies, urging “so-called blessers to stay away from” young girls, the newspaper reported.

According to the report, the mayor’s office could not obtain information about the youngest schoolgirl who fell pregnant in the province last year, as the provincial department of education (DoE) declined to give details.

Masina encouraged pupils to spill the beans on blessers, urging young people, teachers and parents to care for pupils.

The mayor also disclosed that at one of the technical and vocational education and training colleges in the city, half of the students tested positive for HIV.

The mayor’s youth unit said Ekurhuleni would embark on a programme to address the issue of teenage pregnancy, which would include interventions such as vocational work programmes targeting teenagers during school holidays and planned sports, arts and culture programmes.

The programmes, the newspaper reports, include life orientation programmes on personal wellbeing and those meant to discourage young people from engaging in early sexual activity.

Gauteng DoE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga confirmed, according to last year’s figures, a Grade 5 pupil from one of the schools in Ekurhuleni fell pregnant.

The province’s MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi told the publication teenage pregnancy was problematic and that the department would release statistics on the scourge in September.

Spokesperson Mhlanga told the publication that teen pregnancies in schools was a societal issue and that rape contributed to the high figures, adding HIV/Aids was also a problem.

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