EDITORIAL | Why are children bearing children?

South Africa must confront a devastating truth: 2,103 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 gave birth in 2024, according to the latest Stats SA data. Not fell pregnant, gave birth. This is not a statistic to be quietly absorbed.

In a country that claims to value its children, this figure should shake us to the core. Girls barely old enough to understand their own changing bodies are becoming mothers. And we all know what this really is: rape. Let’s stop hiding behind euphemisms.

KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of births (438), followed by the Eastern Cape with 349. These are not faceless numbers on a spreadsheet. These are children whose lives have been irreversibly altered.

South Africa must say clearly and collectively that this is not “teen pregnancy”. A 10-year-old cannot consent. A 14-year-old cannot consent. These births represent sexual violence, coercion and a system that continues to protect perpetrators while failing survivors.

It is horrifying that these incidents continue in a society that is already battling an entrenched rape culture, a culture that normalises predatory behaviour, silences victims and shames girls instead of holding men accountable.

We must ask the hardest questions: where are the investigations? Where are the arrests? Where is the national outrage?

If 2,103 children were kidnapped in a single year, the nation would erupt. If 2,103 children were injured in a school collapse, leaders would declare national mourning.

These 2,103 cases sit within an even broader crisis: 98,351 births to mothers aged 19 and younger. While older teens may face different circumstances, the scale still reflects a society unable, or unwilling, to protect girls from exploitation, the lack of access to contraception, social pressure, poverty and power imbalances.

And yet, amid this national trauma, we are told about naming trends, Onalerona for girls, Lethabo for boys, and the administrative improvements in birth registrations. These details, while interesting, land with a sobering thud against the backdrop of a country in which children are still bearing children.

South Africa cannot continue to treat these numbers as routine annual releases. Each child forced into motherhood is a failure of safety nets, education systems, law enforcement, communities and policy.

If 2,103 children were kidnapped in a single year, the nation would erupt. If 2,103 children were injured in a school collapse, leaders would declare national mourning. But when 2,103 girls give birth, we simply catalogue it under “teenage pregnancy statistics”.

We must name this crisis for what it is. We must demand better. We must protect our children before they become statistics.

South Africa cannot move forward while its girls are being pushed into adulthood through violence, silence and neglect. The country must confront its rape culture with the full force of law, education, community action and political will, because these children deserved safety, not motherhood.

Until we treat these numbers as a national emergency, they will continue to rise. And that is something we cannot allow.