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CRISIS LEVEL: Each month about 50 teenagers give birth at Dora Nginza Hospital in the Eastern Cape. PHOTO: Hazel Salaze

 Girls cannot differentiate between love and sexual exploitation 

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THE preliminary results of an ongoing national study has found that teenage girls in Eastern Cape are engaging in sex at an earlier age than girls in other parts of the country, starting from as young as 14 years and one month.

Gauteng follows closely with girls starting to engage in sex at the average age of 14.2 years.

The new research, which was presented by Neloufar Khan from the Department of Social Development at a conference in Cape Town last week, found that most girls in South Africa had sex for the first time before the age of 16 - which is the legal age of consent - and except for Mpumalanga and Gauteng, a large majority of the girls also fell pregnant for the first time before the age of 16.

The preliminary results of the study by the National Population Unit also found that most girls start having sex to prove their love to their boyfriends.

The researchers looked at communities in five provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng) where they interviewed 1417 young mothers between the ages of 13 and 18; 704 social service providers; and also had focus groups with boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18, parents and other community members.

Mandy Daniels, PE Childline's early intervention programme manager, said based on cases in the city, she believed the study was conservative in its findings as she found children were engaging in sex and sexual experimentation from as early as six and seven.

Daniels said parents needed to be more approachable and needed to communicate with their children more, especially about sex.

Social worker Pamela Rubushe, who is based at Dora Nginza Hospital, said the situation had reached crisis level as an average of 50 teenagers, all aged between 13 to 18, gave birth at the hospital a month.

Rubushe said in many cases young girls were being exploited for sex by older men in exchange for money.

"They cannot differentiate between love and sexual exploitation. They think sex and love is the same thing and because they do not get love at home they look for it with older men," said Rubushe.

Child Welfare South Africa regional director Dalene Ritter said the increase in children who were neglected or sexually abused was directly linked to the increase of children who were engaging in sexual activities at an earlier age.

Ritter said various elements contributed to this, including a lack of love in the family home, an increase in levels of poverty.

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Sat May 25 12:24:03 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 14, 2012

Pointman

The bias in this article is so clear - why mention girls - what about boys. Are we trying to fault girls only.
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Sep 14, 2012

Pointman

Our debauched leadership must take the blame. Children of 16 years should not be obsessed with sex or having kids. Pregnant girls should be suspended from school because the set a bad example. In my daughters school, a grade 12 learner is pregnant with her second child.
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Sep 14, 2012

warry

Hahahaha having sex ain't a sin. As long you do it responsibly. Parents and guardians should just guide as their body is ready. Immediately after menstruation the body is active.
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Sep 14, 2012

Mangoz

EC,young girls start having sex at 14yrs, and young boys start raping the Grannies, teachers having sexual relations with students, lowest passing rate, i get that this happens through out the country, but why this province is negetively bracking the records a lot, something needs to be done.
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Sep 14, 2012

seutullamakunutu

Their President is doing it , even raping ,what do we expect. No morals in leadership .
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Sep 14, 2012

jerico

barobalana kadinako tsa mantlwatlwane where they are probably 11.
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Sep 14, 2012

Mangoz

@SOWETAN

why displaying this kind of a picture mara? ha? r u depicting that these young girls also practice prostitut!on at primary school??
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Sep 14, 2012

warry

@MophemekoPitori, hahaha o wa tella boet. How do you know Pointman's tototjie, did he once have your chocolate box?
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Sep 14, 2012

thandoluhle

1. most children grow up without their fathers
2. most children grow up knowing at least 3 or 4 of their mothers' boyfriends since their fathers are absent r their mothers aren't married to their fathers
3. most children are raised by their grandmothers who are too weak to instill adequate moral compass
4. most of the men in government have several children out of wedlock. even the president is busy sleeping with his friends' daughters and spends more time having sex than in office
5. 70% of ladies above 18yrs have children, and yet they are not married
6. if you had your child as a teenager how can you tell your child not to have sex as a teenager since that child knows wena you were devoid of any moral capacity to correct her
7. most children grow up in a family where there is a bad culture of getting drunk and smoking and use of abusive languages....how can such kids have any sense of good moral judgement.

AND WE WONDER WHY SA HAS THE HIGHEST HIV RATES IN THE WORLD. SA IS DOOMED
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Sep 14, 2012

Stimela

seutullamakunutu
Their President is doing it , even raping ,what do we expect. No morals in leadership .
=========================================================

you cant blame Jacob Zuma for failing to raise your child, lets look at Jacob Zuma's daughter's, non of them fell pregnant while they were teenagers, they are educated and independent, some are now married but they have Jacob Zuma for a father. now tell me who is a bad role model for daughter?

zibanjwa zisemaphuphu.
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