Over 4000 Girls Gave Birth in the Eastern Cape: GBV Activist Calls on the Law To Be Tough

• Gender-based violence activist Vanessa Govender has called on the law to be ruthless in implementing it
• The Eastern Cape province revealed that more than 4000 girls, 97 of whom were between the ages of 10 and 14, gave birth
• Govender spoke to Briefly News and called the act of impregnating an underage girl rape and slammed the system, accusing it of being ineffective

With nine years' experience, Tebogo Mokwena, a current affairs writer for Briefly News, provided insights into the criminal justice system and high-profile cases in South Africa at Daily Sun.

JOHANNESBURG — The Eastern Cape's Department of Health revealed that over 34000 girls, some between 10 and 14, gave birth. A GBV activist told Briefly News that this is because of an ineffective criminal justice system.

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Eastern Cape girls give birth

According to SABC News, the girls gave birth in the past four months. This is indicative of a more significant problem the country is facing: teenage pregnancy. In KwaZulu-Natal, 31,088 teenagers gave birth last year, and 2716 girls between 10 and 14 gave birth between April last year and March this year.

GBV activist slams the government

Speaking to Briefly News, GBV activist Vanessa Govender blamed the criminal justice system for ineffectively implementing the law.

"We have the laws. The government needs to be nothing short of ruthless in implementing it, from police to the courts and prisons, because the system is clearly not working as effectively as it should be. We cannot absolve the Education Department of its responsibility to do more to curb rising teenage pregnancies. Their strategy isn’t working either," she said.

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"We have teachers in so-called “relationships” with pupils. Let’s be clear this isn’t a relationship it’s sexual grooming and rape. Once we start seeing prosecutions and convictions, we will start seeing a paradigm shift in children being s*xually groomed and abused."

Democratic Alliance calls on government to act against teenage pregnancy

in a related article, Briefly News reported that the Democratic Alliance has called on the government to do something about the rising teenage pregnancy statistics.

The World Health Organisation revealed that South Africa has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates, and the DA commented that the law should act on men who rape children and impregnate them.

Source: Briefly News