Rising Teen Pregnancies in South Africa: NGO Says Crisis Is a Pandemic As KZN Records Over 26k Cases

• The Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal says over 26 000 teenagers have fallen pregnant in the last eight months
• A non-government organisation that the figure was disheartening and the government needed to act
• South Africans are alarmed by the figures, and some feel that parents are to blame for teen pregnancy

DURBAN - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has made a startling revelation about teenage pregnancy in the province.

The department says there have been 26 515 teen pregnancies in the province in the last eight months, with the youngest being 10 years old.

KZN MEC of Health says parents should be more involved in their children's lives

According to News24, KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane says parents should get more involved in their children's lives because the current stats are a disgrace.

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Simelane also addressed parents of boys and men, stating that they should not celebrate when they see their sons bringing home girls in school uniform.

The MEC did not state how old the boys who impregnated the teen girls were. However, she added that 17-year-old boys have no business being in sexual relationships with 13-year-old girls.

Simelane stated that teen pregnancy is not the government's disgrace but a disgrace for parents.

"This is not [only] a government disgrace, but a disgrace, parents, for us, as the black nation, because such things are only happening in the black community," said Simelane.

NGO says teenage pregnancy in South Africa should be declared a pandemic

Non-government organisation (NGO), the Teddy Bear Clinic, wants teenage pregnancy to be declared a pandemic in South Africa.

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Speaking to SABC News, Dr Shaheda Omar, clinical director of the NGO, stated that a child giving birth is both alarming and disheartening because it changes the trajectory of the child's life and the newborn.

Omar added that children and newborns are being robbed of opportunities which will have long-term physical and psychological effects on their lives.

South Africans weigh in on teen pregnancy in the country

TheeOnlyMenace said:

"It has become a norm, sadly. All attributed to poor parenting."

@Kathy57231586 said:

"It’s disgraceful, shameful, terrifying to see what calibre of today's youth - does not bring hope for a better future for SA!"

@ChaleChipangura said:

"Cry, my beloved Africa."

@bnzmanoba said:

"South Africa laws seem to be sleeping whilst our children are being abused."

@BizGuru4 said:

"This is all Angie Motshekga's fault & her whole careless team of useless education employees, if she cared enough, they should have hired psychologist companies who will do random visits at schools to emphasis more to these kids that s*x is not a priority nor anything that goes."

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@ncube_mpumelelo said:

"This is a multifaceted problem emanating from a misdirected policy on s*x education, inappropriate media content, a flawed economic structure that limits parent-child contact time, poverty, and moral degeneration, among others."

Men promote teen pregnancy awareness in hilarious video, South African tweeps left in stitches

Briefly News previously reported that a small group of funny and smart South African men have caused giggles and laughs on Twitter with their video on teenage pregnancy awareness.

In the video posted by @Wandile_Ntulie, four men put different items underneath their T-shirts to mimic a pregnant woman. They then hilariously and sensibly shout how teenage pregnancy is wrong by saying over and over again:

i Teenage pregnancy injani? i Wrong!"

Source: Briefly News