Legitimising misogyny: Zuma’s blaming and shaming of pregnant teenagers is misdirected and cruel

Recently, at a rally in Pietermaritzburg former President Jacob Zuma raised the issue of teenage pregnancies. Of course, this was not the first time. 

A few years ago, when he was still President, he suggested that a university should be built on Robben Island and pregnant teenagers should be sent there to be educated.

At the time we thought it was some misplaced joke, only to realise he was serious.  After a public outcry (and presumably on advice of his advisors) we thankfully did not hear much more of it. 

Yet here we are again. Back on the campaign trail the father of 14 labelled teenage pregnancies a disease which, if he had his way, MKP would put an end to by sending the young girls to the island where political prisoners were previously incarcerated by the apartheid government. 

“We are going to take the children and fly them there so that they can study until they finish and stop this thing (teenage pregnancies),” he said. 

Thankfully as long as we are a constitutional state, such barbaric steps will never be allowed.

The problem is that by suggesting a punishment reminiscent of the horrific Irish Magdalen laundries, Zuma is legitimising, commonly held misogynistic views about women and especially pregnant teenagers. 

We live in a society where many men believe that they have the right to abuse women’s bodies for their pleasure or as an outlet for their aggression. The sad and shocking reality is that this is also true when it comes to teenagers and young children.

A report released last week by “Crime Against Children” found that rape was the most prevalent crime reported for children under the age of 17, with the highest incidence in Kwa-Zulu Natal. 

Just pause for a minute to let that sink in … 

Of all the horrible crimes (housebreak-ins, car high jackings etc) that affect children in our country, the thing that happens to children - and girls in particular - the most, is rape. The report also found that sexual assault was nearly twice as high among children as it was in the general population. 

Again, pause for a second. 

This means that children are targeted - presumably because they are more likely to remain quiet. So nothing happens to the paedophiles (yes, that is what they are), while the children are left with devastating long term consequences of which pregnancy is often one. 

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), reported that that 90 037 girls aged ten to 19 years gave birth from March 2021 to April 2022.  According to the WHO of the almost 34 000 teenage pregnancies during 2020, 660 of those were girls under the age of 13 years. The Department of Education reported that 190 learners in Grade 3‚ 4 and 5, fell pregnant between 2014 and 2016. That means that these girls were between 9 and 11 years of age!

Legally, the age of consent in South Africa is 16 years of age. Yet, we rarely see anyone prosecuted for statutory rape. In fact, like Jacob Zuma, many blame the victims for “not keeping their legs shut” as someone wrote to me recently in relation to social grants. It seems blatantly obvious that to point the finger at the young girls who have no ownership or power over their own bodies is totally misdirected and cruel. 

Jacob Zuma insisted that "under African law, when you are a child, you have no right to have a child". Surely that should also mean that under African law (as in all rights based legal systems) no man has the right to have sex with a child? Instead, the practice of adult men “blessing” young women with gifts in exchange for sex continues with impunity.   

Not only do they frequently transmit sexually transmittable diseases to these young girls, but when pregnancies inevitably happen, they are nowhere to be found. 

“You see children that have two, three children, but there is no baby-daddy in sight, and they are not married", said Jacob Zuma.  Eh yes, but why shame the girls for that? Why not insist that men take responsibility for their actions?

I agree with Jacob Zuma that teenage pregnancies are symptomatic of a disease, but like so many sexual diseases, they are transmitted by men. So, instead of shaming, blaming and wanting to banish women and girls, Jacob Zuma and other politicians should use their powerful voices to educate men to respect women and stay the hell away from young girls.