- The high rate of child pregnancies rarely results in criminal prosecutions.
- DA probes provincial governments on their obligation into ensuring that child rapists are prosecuted and jailed.
- This is one of the most prevalent forms of Gender-Based Violence that is being ignored in large parts of the country.
The growing number of girls under 16 years becoming pregnant and giving birth in South Africa is deeply disturbing.
That is why the Democratic Alliance (DA) is launching a national investigation into the way provincial departments are fulfilling their obligations under the Children’s Act to ensure that men who have sex with young girls can be prosecuted and jailed. This is the kind of crime in which DNA testing can identify the perpetrators with 100% accuracy.
In the Eastern Cape a staggering 117 girl children between 10 and 14 years gave birth between April and July of 2025. And at a slightly older age, a further 4,752 girls aged between 15 to 19 years delivered babies in Eastern Cape public healthcare facilities during the same period.
These figures are merely the tip of the iceberg, as they exclude unreported births, cases of concealment and girls who fell pregnant and then terminated their pregnancies or suffered miscarriages. The rate of child pregnancy is therefore considerably higher than the rate of live births that have been recorded.
This means that the pandemic of child rape and statutory rape is far higher than the shocking figures suggest.
This is one of the most prevalent forms of Gender-Based Violence that is being ignored in large parts of the country, despite the Children’s Act demanding action from provincial departments, the SA Police Service, and civil society actors. .
The Children’s Act of 2005 requires various government departments to report suspicion of sexual assault on children to the police, a designated children’s protection organisation, or the provincial department of social development.
When an expectant mother as young as 10 years old presents to a medical professional, there can be no doubt that the pregnancy is evidence of child sexual abuse and statutory rape (at the very least), which must always be reported to the police.
Dealing with gender-based violence begins with protecting girl children from sexual abuse by older men.
Failure by those obligated in law to report cases and address child rape, and statutory rape inevitably results in this kind of criminal behaviour becoming normalised and even protected. Indeed perpetrators now often bribe their way out of facing the consequences of their actions through cash payments to the families involved.
This is a reflection of the extent to which this society lets down girl children from a very early age, initiating the cycle of Gender-Based Violence.
We cannot accept, nor normalise, that girls as young as 10 are falling pregnant in increasing numbers, without perpetrators being prosecuted for rape or statutory rape.
As the Children’s Act only requires reporting of under-age girls actually giving birth, many perpetrators, who should be charged with statutory rape, are slipping through the cracks.
Poverty plays a significant role in the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and statutory rape. In many impoverished communities, transactional relationships between older men and vulnerable girls, often in exchange for food, money, fashion items or even basic necessities, have become alarmingly common.
Far too often parents are aware of this abuse, but their silence is bought by the perpetrators.
The DA will be filing written questions to every Provincial MEC of Basic Education, Health and Social Development to establish:
1.. How every potential case of statutory rape involving girls under the age of 16 is recorded and investigated;
2.. The total number of Form 22s completed in the last 5 years (these are mandatory forms to report evidence of sexual abuse of children)
3.. How their healthcare and social workers are trained and equipped to implement the provisions of the Children’s Act in these cases; and
4.. What proportion of cases are referred to the police for criminal investigation?
The DA will also put in questions to SAPS leadership to ask how many cases of statutory rape have been opened in each province over each year since 2005 and for the National Prosecuting Authority to answer how many cases have been successfully prosecuted.
The high rate of child pregnancies rarely results in criminal prosecutions, and this indicates systemic failure that must be remedied. For the financial year 2023/24 (April 2023 to March 2024) only 150 convictions involving cases of statutory rape were successfully prosecuted and finalised.
We acknowledge that for some girls between 12 and 16 engage in consensual sex with boys of a similar age. This does not constitute a crime in law, but for any girl under 12, legal consent is not possible. These are acts of “statutory rape” irrespective of the circumstances.
We also acknowledge that some pregnant girl children refuse to identify their rapists, out of emotional attachment, fear or financial bribes accepted by the family.
None of these reasons can ever justify the exploitation of the girl child to continue unabated. South Africa must act swiftly to ensure children are protected in terms of the Children’s Act.