KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has lashed out at parents who do not take responsibility for their children, urging them to become more involved after the province recorded 26 515 pregnancies among 10- to 19-year-olds between April and December last year.
She said 1 254 of the pregnancies were girls aged 10 to 14, reports News24.
In February, Statistics South Africa data showed that 90 037 adolescents aged 10 to 19 had given birth from March 2021 to April 2022.
And in 2020, of the almost 34 000 teenage pregnancies, 660 were girls under 13.
“Do not ululate or look the other way when your son brings home a girl in school uniform,” she said, pleading for parents to become more hands-on.
“If we… don’t take responsibility for raising our kids properly, nothing will ever change.
“… This is not (only) a government disgrace, but a disgrace for us as the black nation, because such things are only happening in the black community.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Teen pregnancies surge in Eastern Cape
Urgent action needed to reduce teen pregnancies – KZN Premier
SA teens hide their pregnancies and pay with death
36 teen pregnancies, half HIV+, at a single Limpopo school