Villagers in ward 6 Nswazi, Umzingwane have lamented the high levels of moral decadence among young people which has led to an increase in teenage pregnancies.
This came out during a round table discussion held last week on the impact of illegal mining on women.
Speaking during a meeting, a villager Tracy Ncube said she is worried about young girls who are falling victim to illegal miners and falling pregnant at a young age.
“I am worried about our children who are now dating illegal miners/ ogweja all because they are flashing money. This issue is worrying because we have no solution to it,” said Ncube.
She said they wish the situation can be resolved but they are clueless on how to handle it.
Another villager, Zanele Gwebu said they are appealing for the government to intervene in teenage pregnancies.
“Our young girls is now problematic, and you find children around the ages of 14-15 falling pregnant. The government should intervene because usually this age group end up having complications when giving birth and having operations,” she said.
Mois Masuku added that parents are failing to reprimand their children nowadays.
“You find that as a parent I will be not affording to give my child money to carry to school, this makes them be easily lured, this makes them to date Omakorokoza because they want to get Pepsi and snacks,” she said.
Another villager Lindiwe Ncube said poverty has led to an increase in teenage pregnancies.
“It pains us to see young children pregnant, when we try to ask them they say it’s the traditional food that they eat at home, children nowadays want to eat fast foods which can not be easily found in a rural setup,” said Ncube
Ward 6 Councilor, Amanda Khumalo said they recorded many cases of teenage pregnancies during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
“In our area, we don’t have vast gold deposits, our children from the area leave and go to other areas such as Gwanda and Filabusi and when they come back they will be having money and they start luring girls and young women,” said Cllr Khumalo.
“Many girls fell pregnant especially during the first lockdown, most of them were underage from 12 years they didn’t even manage to go back to school but some parents pleaded with the schools for their children to be taken back to school.”
