Democratic Alliance Calls for Action on Sexual Assault Amid High Teenage Pregnancy Rates

• The Democratic Alliance is concerned that South Africa has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy rates in the world
• The World Health Organisation revealed in April that one in four teenagers in the country were pregnant
• Briefly News spoke to GBV activist Vanessa Govender about the rate of teenage pregnancy
• The party called on the country's law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to be harder on sexual assault

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues like health, corruption, education, unemployment, service delivery protests and heritage in South Africa during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — The Democratic Alliance is alarmed that teenage pregnancy in the country is increasing and has called for those who commit sexual crimes to be given long jail sentences.

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DA worried about teenage pregnancies

According to SABC News, the party's Social Development spokesperson Alexandra Grahams said the party was alarmed by the rising teenage pregnancy figures. This was after the World Health Organisation revealed that one in four teenagers in South Africa fall pregnant.

Abrahams questioned whether the 2716 young girls aged between 10 and 154 opened cases relating to sexual assault.

"How many convictions do we have from those caes because one of the solutions to solving this crisis is that there needs to be serious consequences for the perpetrators. We need to talk about lengthy jail time," Abraham said.

Briefly News speaks to GBV activist

GBV activist Vanessa Govender told Briefly News that teenage pregnancy resulting from sexual abuse is concerning.

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"The high level of teenage pregnancies tells a story, and that story tells us that the political rhetoric around this pandemic simply is ineffective. We cannot look at teenage pregnancies in isolation without understanding, acknowledging and calling it for what it is. It is rape, sexual grooming and abuse of children, sometimes by children themselves. Calling for prosecution is all good and well. But we can’t ignore that our court systems and police are already strained with high volumes of case loads," she said.

"This compromises how these systems tackle are able to tackle cases of sexual assault. The system itself is not designed to be victim-friendly. And that’s not to say police don’t have a protocol on how to handle survivors and reporting of rape."

South Africans concerned about teenage pregnancy

Netizens on Facebook discussed teenage pregnancy in South Africa and what should be done about it.

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Onkabetse Given said:

"They should cancel the SASSA grant. This is the best solution."

Bucs Pieter said:

"Perpetrators lure their prey through money. Young girls are more aftewr money than brightening their futures."

Andrew Kwenamore said:

"This is too much."

Marcel Arno De Vos said:

"Destroy Onlyfans and Pornhub for good. The world will be a better place."

Teenage mother who escaped GBV shares story of being breadwinner

In another article, Briefly News reported that a woman who became a teenage mother also became a breadwinner.

Ntobeko Mafu, who is now a successful poultry farmer, shared her story of how she became a teenage mother and escaped an abusive relationship.

Source: Briefly News