Zuko Komisa

Minister Zulu encourages teenage mothers to return to school.
Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu has encouraged teenage mothers to return to school following the conclusion of her outreach program in Mpumalanga by visiting the SASSA local office where she interacted with teenage mothers.
StatsSA estimates show that over 150,000 young girls were pregnant in the 2022/2023 fiscal year and over the last three years, there has been a notable increase in teenage pregnancy in the age cohort 10–14 and 14–19 years who delivered at public health facilities.
Point of View with Phemelo Motene spoke to the Minister about her visit and various other issues including child support for newly born babies and SASSA payment problems amongst other matters.
Listen to the full conversation here:
Zulu is also a SheDecides Global advocate; a global movement that aims to uphold, defend, and expand girls’ and women’s fundamental rights to bodily autonomy and the ability to make decisions about their bodies, lives, health, and futures.
Also Read: NUM is set to challenge Gold One mine dismissals
Zulu expressed the Department’s concern about teenage pregnancy and spoke about how many young girls find themselves in a situation where they have to drop out of school.
“This is a very big concern for us as a Department of Social Department, and may I say that this is not a new concern. What we do know is that the biggest social grant payment is the child support grant. The grant entails that we have a lot of new babies that are being born or children that are on social grants. In December I was at an SASSA branch in KZN, and the queue I found was full of young mothers, teenagers, carrying their babies, coming to register.”
Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu
READ NEXT: Ernest Khosa, chair of the NSFAS board, takes leave amid corruption allegations by OUTA



