Picture: Pregnant underage child/Generic
By STAFF REPORTER
7 June 2026 – The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it remains deeply concerned that a national crisis of child pregnancies and statutory rape is not being addressed by the relevant actors in government. The DA said just this week statistics presented in Parliament showed that 1 900 cases of statutory rape were abandoned by police and prosecutors since 2021.
DA Member of Parliament (MP) and spokesperson on Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, Angel Khanyile said they will escalate the child pregnancy failures of the government to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Khanyile said the DA will not accept that young girls are being raped and sexually abused in silence, are carrying children and the system is failing them at every step.
“Police, Health, Justice and Social Development are all grossly in dereliction of their duty. The DA will now file a comprehensive complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission to address the violation of human rights of young girls who are raped and made to carry children without legal consequences for their rapists.
“The DA’s dossier will be populated with shocking findings uncovered by the DA showing systemic failure by numerous actors in government to report, track, investigate and prosecute suspected sexual abuse against children,” she said.
Khanyile further said last year, the DA established an internal Task Team working on the DA’s fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including the sexual abuse and rape of children. She added that the DA’s Task Team launched a national investigation, where questions were submitted to national Ministers and Provincial departments to determine the extent of child pregnancy and whether these departments are reporting these to the relevant authorities as in some cases, a child being pregnant is prima facie evidence of a serious crime.
“What the DA uncovered should shock every South African. We believe that the fundamental constitutional rights of a child to dignity and to be protected from abuse are being violated by flawed systems that are working in silos.
“Ahead of opening the SAHRC complaint, we are finalising our papers to request that the SAHRC investigate these failures urgently and thoroughly, identify solutions, and make recommendations (both punitive and remedial),” said Khanyile.
She said the key issues found during our investigation were that, the Department of Health revealed that of the 122 302 adolescents that gave birth in 2023/24, some 2 716 were between 10 and 14 years old. Khanyile said the South African Police Service (SAPS) revealed that just 610 statutory rape cases were reported in 2023/24, with 39.5% of victims being 15 years old, 30.77% being 14 years old, and 20.66% being 13 years old.
“SAPS further revealed that in 2023/24, there were just 129 child births, 138 child pregnancies, and 27 child miscarriages/terminations reported for a whole year, for criminal investigation.
“Between 2021/22 and 2024/25, the NPA decided to enrol a total of 2 845 cases and successfully prosecuted 980 cases, closed 2 166 without result and unsuccessfully prosecuted 180 cases. In 2024, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development reported 0 (nil) cases of statutory rape to SAPS,” she said.
Khanyile said, however, in that same period KZN DSD had received 2185 form 22 complaints – 55 from DoH and 1 157 from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and members of the public. She said in Mpumalanga, between 2020/21 and 2024/25, 65 087 children aged 10-19 years gave birth in Mpumalanga health facilities, of which 1 824 were aged 14 years or younger.
“Yet in 2022/23, just four cases of child births, terminations or miscarriages, or pregnancies were reported to Mpumalanga DSD. In 2023/24, just two cases were reported and in 2024/25, just five cases were reported. The numbers simply do not add up and departments are working in silos, failing to comply with statutory reporting requirements, indicating a catastrophic failure in data management and sharing.
“Our children deserve to be protected, and at the very least, the systems in place to protect children should work,” said Khanyile.
The Guardian 