The issue of pregnant schoolgirls has resurfaced as a topic of intense discussion among South Africans, serving as a temporary distraction from our daily lives. Typically, such concerns fade after about a week, replaced by the next hot topic.
The truth, however, is that teenage pregnancy is prevalent because sexual activity, with or without prevention and commitment, is rampant, and has been normalised by both religious institutions and the government as an indispensable human need.
Furthermore, the current democratic regime, with its blend of communist atheism and secular Christianity, has transformed a society rooted in ubuntu values and Christian discipline into a melting pot of American and Western societal experiments. This “transformation” is the real source of teenage pregnancy, moral decay, and the erosion of respect for religious authority, which are issues that society shies away from addressing.
Instead, the media, acting as the voice of the so-called secular state, aims to do two things: assign blame within the religious-patriarchal domain and portray these issues as the result of a clash between regressive cultural norms and the “innocent” modern policies of the democratic initiative.
This portrayal is misleading. In fact, it is the underlying intentions of the democratic initiative and the desire for a single authority to dictate societal ethos that has fostered an environment where irresponsible sexual behaviour is viewed as a right and a privilege. Otherwise, what do you expect children who are introduced to sex through mainly their schooling activity, regardless of the measures taken by parents or religious beliefs, and whatever justifications with the right to abort a foetus, to do, when adults and their peers start treating them as ladies?
It is often debated that adults or teachers should take responsibility for children, but this becomes complex when children know and seek adult experiences. Moreover, online platforms expose children to adult content, which, in a democratic society, is legally accessible to adults, yet the government struggles to regulate this effectively.
Was it not the government that challenged cultural practices meant to protect young girls’ sexuality, deeming them a violation of rights and unconstitutional? Despite its professed concern, the government does not provide the direct care of changing a diaper or bathing a baby.
It also does not station police officers or soldiers directly above homes and communities plagued by extreme poverty and lawlessness, nor in taverns where underage girls interact with adults.
Yes, it is the government and its Constitution advocating a free-will state religion and its various bodies that are implicated in the metaphorical impregnation of girls, and this is where we must begin if we seek genuine solutions.
Khotso KD Moleko | Bloemfontein
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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