Monica* sits with her hands clamped between her thighs as her gaze is fixed on the floor.
The room is engulfed with heavy silence as she relays the struggles that she has had to endure since she found out she was pregnant in April.
The 16-year-old is one if 23,226 children and teenagers who are reported to have fallen pregnant or given birth between March last year and April in Gauteng.
Monica fell pregnant after she was raped in December by a neighbour who lured her into his house.
The teen wears a baggy jersey, which she explains helps conceal her protruding belly. “I have not been going to school because I am due to give birth before the end of this month. I have not been able to cope with school because the other learners make fun of me,” she said.
“One of the other things that made me stop going to school was that one of the learners posted on Facebook that ‘the girl who was raped is now pregnant’ and other learners commented by laughing and saying other things that made me uncomfortable,” she said as tears swollen in her eyes.
The trauma caused by the situation pushed her to attempt taking her own life over a month ago. “I can't even walk on the streets. I stay indoors because the person who raped me has not been arrested. I see him when I go to school and I am reminded of what happened that day,” she said.
The teenager's mother told Sowetan that they opened a case at Honeydew police station. To date, the suspect has not been apprehended.
Provincial police spokesperson Capt Mavela Masondo said investigations were ongoing, adding that they had not made arrests due to pending DNA results.
“My daughter has not been the same. A police officer took her to a clinic after she was raped where they checked her and gave her medication. The same officer was meant to take her to the clinic again two weeks after the first visit but she did not return and was not taking our calls,” said the distraught mother.
Sitting next to her daughter and comforting her, she explained that she did not know what they would do about the baby and did not know what would happen to the man who placed her in that situation.
“I have seen my daughter change physically and I have seen her behaviour change over the past four months. It breaks our hearts because it does not seem like there is anything we can do about it. We are helpless at the moment. In two weeks, we will have a lifetime reminder of the tragedy that befell my daughter,” she said.
“We did not know that she was pregnant. We tried to terminate the pregnancy but the doctors said it was too late because the scans indicated that she was 31 weeks pregnant.”
According to statistics revealed by Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi in a written response in the provincial legislature, 934 babies were delivered by girls between the ages of 10 and 14, while over 19,000 were delivered by those between the ages of 15 and 19.
Nearly 3,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 chose to terminate their pregnancies.
Mokgethi said her department did not have the profiles of the type of men who fathered these children. She said cases of statutory rape were reported to the department of social development and the police.
“There are no statistics collected specifically on statutory rape by the Department of Health. The cases are reported to SAPS and arrests remain their mandate,” Mokgethi said.
* not her real name
