In a since deleted post on its Twitter page, the City of Tshwane caught a bit of fire yesterday when its awareness campaign on teenage pregnancy was accused of focusing solely on the girl child.

The tweet in question showed a picture of a teenage girl wearing school uniform cradling her pregnant belly. The caption accompanying the poster read: “Dear teen girl, be smart and learn about preventing #TeenagePregnancy”.

Before being deleted, the post was already shared more than 300 times.

A number of non-profit organisations, who had seen the tweet, said while they commended the municipality's efforts in raising awareness on teenage pregnancy, the message was lost due to the inconsistencies of the poster.

Bertha Maringi, who runs the Ray of Hope Foundation Young Mom's Support Group in Alexandra, Johannesburg, said when she first saw the picture, she said it was “unfair” on the girl.

“Teenage pregnancies are not about the girl but the boy as well. But as communities, we've also failed these children because we're not there for our children, we're absent.

“It can't also be lost on us that a lot of these girls are not impregnated by teenage boys but older men. This particular poster places the blame on girls and that's not fair,” Maringi said.

Earlier this week, the City of Tshwane raised the alarm about the high rate of teenage pregnancies after its public health facilities recorded nearly 10,000 deliveries to young moms in two years.

Between July 2019 and June 2021 there were 9,922 births by teenagers. Of these, 674 girls were between the ages of 10 and 14.

Marumo Sekgobela from Save the Children SA said he was not against the idea of raising awareness but added the message was lost and needed to be refined.

“It's a dicey subject matter because the person who feels the effects of teenage pregnancy the most are girls,” he said.

Sekgobela added that the Tshwane team needed to re-look and refine its message. “Also, let's look at who makes these teens pregnant. It's mostly men who are not of the same age group. Equally, we can't leave the boy child out of the message we're trying to convey of safety.” 

Scott Clarke, founder of Amandla Development, a non-profit organisation based in Cape Town, said unfortunately, Twitter was not really a space for nuance.

“I get why people would be annoyed at the seeming one-sidedness of this post. But I also think sometimes it’s okay to speak to just one party, in this case the girls, as long as ultimately the whole conversation is had. It’s a problem if it just stops with this statement.

“I’m only thinking of consensual situations that we do need to speak to both parties, but we shouldn’t disempower young women by assuming they don’t have any agency at all in some situations,” Clarke said.

Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo could only say the put down the post after it caused commotion. "

“You are right in denoting that it was meant to create education and awareness about this sensitive issue; the engagement was seemingly causing commotion that's why we moved swiftly to withdraw it,” said Mashego.