Andile Moshoeshoe
THE alarming rise in teenage pregnancies across the Harry Gwala District has prompted Mayor Zamo Nxumalo to issue an urgent call to traditional leaders, parents and communities to intensify efforts to protect children and confront the social ills ravaging families.
Nxumalo appealed to traditional leaders to reconnect with their communities and convene public gatherings where pressing social challenges can be openly discussed. He further called for the establishment of community structures that will encourage parents to rebuild meaningful relationships with their children and become more actively involved in their upbringing.
On Wednesday, August 26, Nxumalo joined the one-day meeting of the district AIDS council in Ixopo. He said the crisis of teenage pregnancy had repeatedly emerged across various community platforms, including engagements with young people. In some instances, he said, children had revealed deeply disturbing circumstances in their homes, claiming they had witnessed adults engaging in sexual activity while intoxicated and were subsequently exposed to inappropriate behaviour from an early age.
He described this as a serious concern amid a range of social challenges affecting communities, particularly pregnancies involving girls as young as 16 years old.
He issued a stern warning against the growing phenomenon of so-called “sugar daddies”, urging young girls to avoid relationships with significantly older men, particularly those who exploit their vulnerability.
He said one of the underlying causes of the crisis was the widening distance between children and their parents, particularly fathers.
“We once encountered a situation involving a child whose mother was both a councillor and a teacher. When it emerged that the child was pregnant and we questioned her, she explained that her mother had never really spent time with her or raised her through meaningful conversations because she was always busy and came home only to sleep. Instead, she would simply come home and give her money,” Nxumalo said, stressing that parenting should never be reduced to financial provision alone.
He strongly condemned older men who engage in sexual relationships with underage girls and impregnate them, describing such conduct as reprehensible, exploitative and deeply disturbing.
“Parents must talk to their children and stop being silenced by money when their children are impregnated by older men,” he said. At the gathering, the chairperson of the traditional house in the Harry Gwala district Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza said traditional leaders had resolved to introduce an awareness programme that would continue throughout the year, focusing on educating and guiding young people about the dangers and consequences of teenage pregnancy.
“Our greatest challenge is that children are now giving birth to children,” he said and further mentioned that in many cases, the impregnation of children is committed by adult males.
He said traditional leaders had strengthened their working relationship with the Department of Justice, SAPS, Department of Social Development and the Department of Health.
The objective of the meeting was to restore and strengthen the role of traditional leadership in protecting families and children within their communities and to put an end to practices in which men accused of impregnating children attempted to resolve the matter through financial payments.
He acknowledged that poverty remained a significant contributing factor to the broader social crisis confronting communities.
“Even though poverty contributes immensely to this challenge, we cannot sit back while the nation is dying. We are committed to fighting this scourge to the bitter end,” he concluded.
