The 23-year-old father of one of the babies born in KwaZulu-Natal on New Year’s Day faces widespread calls to be arrested for statutory rape.
This comes after it was revealed that the mother of his child is only 16 years old and so she must have fallen pregnant at the age of 15.
She was one of close to 350 mothers congratulated for successfully giving birth in KZN on the 1st of January.
But debate was sparked and concerns expressed over the high number of young girls between 14 and 16 in that number.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane made a call for the arrest of the 23-year-old father of the baby born in Nkandla Hospital.
The mother, she said, “is an underage person and the father who is 23 years old knew very well that this was statutory rape. That is why we are calling for his arrest.”
She also revealed that the youngest mother of 2023 was a 15-year-old from Port Shepstone. The father was also 15.
Ncamsile Nkwanyana, an IFP member of the health portfolio committee in the KZN legislature, said that this is a crisis that needs serious intervention, with school kids taught about safe sex.
“We need the departments of health, social development and education, including society, to come together and come up with a serious intervention to address this scourge,” she said. “You can see that all these kids who are mothers of New Year’s Day babies are still at high school since they are between the ages of 14 and 16,” said Nkwanyana.
She also called for the 23-year-old father to be arrested – as well as the girl’s parents.
The family of the young mother could not be reached for comment and no criminal case has been opened.
Early last year Stats SA revealed that in the 2020/2021 financial year, about 18,000 KZN teenagers were pregnant.
The number was increased in 2022 by 70.4%, according to the KZN department of health.
Pictured above: Some of the young girls who gave birth on New Year’s Day in different hospitals in KZN
Image Source: KZN Department of Health
