North West village 'a place of babies' - Mareetsane has become known for its exceptionally high teen pregnancy rate

Young girls with two or more children who drop out of school and have no hope of bringing an end to poverty is what residents of Mareetsane village outside Mahikeng, North West, have become used to.

The village was in the news earlier this week when it was reported that there were thousands of young girls who were either pregnant or had babies.

In an investigation into the high pregnancy rate in the village in the Ratlou local municipality, Sowetan found a girl who was reported to be 13 years old and who has two children.

Her age could not be ascertained, but she could be older. The girl said she was 16, but her 26-year-old sister said she was actually 20.

She said she got pregnant while she was playing "house" with her boyfriend.

"I later found out that I was pregnant. The second time I was not taking any contraceptives and fell pregnant again."

Her children are aged five and one. None of her 21 family members have birth certificates.

The older ones, including the girl's mother who is in her 50s, all do not have identity documents.

The woman has nine children and 11 grandchildren.

None of them knew what their ages were and some could not even remember their birthdays.

The entire family has also never been to school, and the relatives, who cannot be named to protect their identities, live in poor conditions.

The family survives on money they get from boyfriends who work on nearby farms.

"My boyfriend most time provides for us with the money he gets from the piece jobs at the farm. Some times his bosses give him a 25kg bag of mealie meal," said the 26-year-old.

The younger sister echoed her older sister's statements on them being supported by men.

"My boyfriend normally does not give me money, but buys food for us. He also works at the nearby farms."

Their mother sat outside and did not respond to any of the questions that were asked.

However, a relative who does not live with the family, said since the woman's husband died the family had been struggling.

"She [the mother] lost her husband a long time ago and had twins with another man. Since then, things have never been the same," she said.

In the village, children below the age of seven were seen on the streets. Most of them were seen at an area called Maseanyaneng, meaning "a place of infants or babies".

The village is poor and most of the residents rely on piece jobs or social grants.

There are no basic services and last month angry villagers set alight a local school and community hall demanding tarred roads, water, houses, a mall and jobs.

The face of poverty

The Ratlou local municipality has a population of 107339 people, of which 98.2% are black African, according to Census 2011. The population grew by 0.11% in the 2011 report.

With an unemployment rate of 43.9%, a situation compounded by the high level of people aged 20 and above with little or no school careers.

In 2011, the unemployment rate was at 28.9%, with the youth unemployment higher at 52.4%

Only 24.4% of people aged 20 and above have some level of secondary schooling and 11.3% have matric. Just 26.9% of the population have some level of primary schooling.

The statistics also show that 5.3% completed primary schooling and only 3.1% have some form of higher education.

The report stated that there were 26889 households in the municipality with an average household size of 4.0 persons.

"Of those households, 10.6% have access to piped water inside the yard whereas 5.2% have access to water piped inside the dwelling.

"Only 12.4% of the households do not have access to piped water," reads a report on Stats SA. The report further shows that 83.7% of houses have access to electricity."