In an admirably bold but doomed move, the Western Cape government wants to reward teenagers for not getting pregnant.
This means that Western Cape teens will hit the jackpot — whether they breed or not. Those who have kids will be rewarded by the African National Congress government with a monthly child allowance. Those who don’t will benefit from incentives provided by the Democratic Alliance provincial government.
Western Cape Social Development Department’s Gavin Miller said the prevention campaign would ensure the “restoration of family structures” — whatever this particular bit of political gibberish might actually mean — and break the cycle of poverty. He points out that teen mums often don’t finish school and their kids have a higher risk of being abused.
The problem for the DA is that the goodies bag they have in mind doesn’t include hard cash. Instead, they want to reward sexual responsibility with incentives, such as bursaries.
What a bummer for the average horny teen. Not only does the spoil-sport DA want to discourage nooky but it wants them instead to hit the books in the hope of some intangible reward called “education” that is mysteriously going to deliver benefits somewhere in the dim and distant future.
The ANC, in contrast, pays out R250 per month per child, no questions asked. One can pull in R1 :500 a month for up to six offspring and the dosh flows until the youngster turns 18. Which explains why South Africa is one of the biggest welfare states in the world, with an annual grants budget of R89-billion and perhaps why teenage pregnancies in Gauteng doubled in the years following the introduction of the child support grant.
A now relatively flush teen mum with an armful of child grants can afford to pay gran a couple of hundred bucks for some basic kiddy care and still have some left over towards the latest cellphone. And by the way, the monthly income of our no-hoper mum with a six-pack of rug rats comfortably exceeds that of a 60-year-old gogo, whose state pension is R1 080 per month.
Teen pregnancy rates are a problem all over the world and there is no quick fix. It is known, though, that any intervention that keeps girls at schools does pay off tenfold down the line, since the education of women is the single biggest influence on improved social welfare and health markers.
While the Human Sciences Research Council review of the data in 2006 concluded that there were “no grounds” to believe that young girls are having children in order to access welfare benefits, it did concede that the “issue can only be settled conclusively by a specially designed study”. Surprisingly, such a study has yet to happen.
Since China has become so popular a reference point for ANC politicians — this week ANCYL leader Julius Malema airily dismissed fears of disinvestment in response to his nationalisation plans with the reassurance that if Western investors left the Chinese would step in — SA should turn East for inspiration in fertility matters. No namby-pamby, touchy-feely, wishy-washy nonsense from the Chinese: one child per family and that’s that.
An authoritarian approach is, in any case, very much the new ANC’s style. As President Jacob Zuma caringly put it a few years ago, teenage mothers should have their babies confiscated and then “must be taken to colleges and forced to get an education so that they can be in a position to look after themselves”.
One can’t but feel some sympathy for teens. After all, the problems associated with poor parenting are not limited to families of teen parents. The fact that so many people are psychologically damaged can be traced to ill-prepared, neglectful and abusive mums and dads of all ages.
Parenting, like driving or owning a firearm, should be limited to demonstrably well-adjusted people over the age of 18, who have passed a proficiency test. Failure at matric woodwork would be an automatic disqualifier.
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