By Mapaballo Borotho
- The DA has lodged a complaint with the SAHRC, alleging that government departments are failing to report and investigate suspected statutory rape cases linked to child pregnancies.
- According to the party’s dossier, 798 births and 279 abortions were recorded among girls aged 10 to 14 during the first half of 2025, while 2,716 girls in the same age group gave birth during the 2023/24 financial year.
- The DA wants the SAHRC to investigate what it calls a systemic failure that is allowing perpetrators of sexual crimes against children to escape accountability.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has filed a human rights complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), accusing state departments of failing to report and prosecute suspected statutory rape linked to child pregnancies.
The second-largest party in the Government of National Unity (GNU) says its Gender-Based Violence Task Team has submitted a dossier detailing what it describes as a breakdown in coordination between the Departments of Health, Basic Education and Social Development, as well as the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Addressing the media on Friday, 12 June 2026, DA Member of Parliament Angel Khanyile said pregnancies involving girls under the age of 16 should trigger mandatory reporting unless they fall within narrow legal exceptions.
The dossier states that thousands of adolescents gave birth during the 2023/24 financial year, including 2,716 girls aged between 10 and 14.
It further claims that during the first half of 2025, approximately 798 deliveries and 279 terminations of pregnancy were recorded among girls aged 10 to 14.
The DA says the Eastern Cape recorded 396 births involving girls under the age of 14 between April and September 2024, yet only 16 cases were reported to the police.
“The DA demands accountability for a catastrophic systemic state failure that leaves South Africa’s most vulnerable children unprotected from sexual violence and rape,” said Khanyile.
“When a girl under the age of 16 becomes pregnant and presents at a clinic, a social worker’s office, or a police station, it is evidence of a serious crime: statutory rape. Yet in far too many cases, the reporting and subsequent criminal investigation do not begin.
The negligence of the relevant departments needs to be declared unconstitutional,” she said.
The party is now calling on the SAHRC to investigate what it describes as a systemic failure that is allowing child rapists to evade accountability.
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