Time to break this sad cycle

It all started as an innocent conversation about how a 29-year-old woman was pregnant with her third child from a third different man … This as we sat enjoying the ambiance of a wedding celebration of another 29-year-old, who got married without having had children and with a completed university degree.

The stark difference between the two women was so different it was actually scary.

The best explanation for this was that, as parents, we ought to be careful of the environments we raise our children in.

No matter what we do in our homes, no matter the morals we try to instil in them, if the environment surrounding these children is tarnished, we run the risk of raising tarnished children with a possible overflow of anger.

This is not just about teenage pregnancy. To be honest, this is about the negative of the environments of the have-nots.

Sandton and Alexandra are basically separated by one major road.

The effects of inequality are more likely to be felt more by little Sipho and Mapule who grow up in Alex than Lesego and Thato from Sandton.

Mapule is likely to look for a man to take her out of poverty, exposing herself to sugar daddies or local thugs, who represent prosperity and power in her community,

She opens herself up to rapes, teenage pregnancy and, ultimately, dropping out of school to mother children she is left to raise on an entry-level income. This is the sad destiny of many young township girls.

By the same token, Sipho is likely to be that young man with an old face, ravaged by the effects of the street drug of his choice.

There is a possibility that he could be the one of the men who terrorise not only the townships but the country with criminal activity.

He could be the father of many faceless children he abandoned as quickly as he conceived them .

This because both Mapule and Sipho are the products of a vicious cycle – they themselves were raised by a Mapule and a Sipho.

We should use that cycle as motivation to break the mould.