Sterilise reckless teens

EVEN before Nkandla, many pundits were obsessed with “getting at” President Jacob Zuma. Thus whatever the president says is slated even when he has a valid opinion. Recently, the president commented on two issues that remain hugely contentious.

His concern with pregnant teens was vital, although sending them to Robben Island was too much. The point is; he identified a social fracture that is an avoidable cost to taxpayers.

In response, Phumzile van Damme (DA) said: “As the holder of the highest office in the land, the president has done an embarrassing, and offensive disservice to the country’s teenage pregnancy crisis and his government’s role in addressing the socioeconomic problems that underpin it.

“The president’s comments are devoid of any responsible solutions to curbing teenage pregnancy, which require that we adopt a whole-of-society approach involving all stakeholders in developing young people with the aim of producing... well-resourced adults.”

That teens are having sex is obvious. That the results are a huge expense for the taxpayer must be resolved. More than 20 000 teens were pregnant last year, which clearly suggests infinite research, talk shops and programmes are a waste of taxpayer’s time and money. The investment of educating teens about the dangers of pre-marital sex, Aids and the other issues needs to be reviewed. Thus Van Damme’s words are costly but useless.

These programmes have cost taxpayers billions over two decades and the growing teen pregnancy stats prove the futility of this exercise. The only people who benefit from these programmes are sector NGOs, and printing and publicity companies. According to media reports, taxpayers now have to pay for fruit-flavoured edible condoms to ensure teen co-operation. Studies suggest this condom will generate interest among teens.

What is needed is a more assertive approach which includes sterilisation. When immature teens reproduce, they must be barred from adding future financial burdens on to society. Among the reckless, sterilisation should not be considered a moral issue, but a social and financial matter.

When 100 teens get pregnant, it is a problem, when 20 000 get pregnant it is a social and fiscal disaster. The primary concern cannot remain the wellbeing of the teens, but rather how to reduce the impact on taxpayers. While teens are the future, they remain a fiscal burden. They require limited free housing, education and other costly services. Sterilisation is a fair trade for the liability to taxpayers.

The second issue raised by Zuma was the notion of the expectation of endless free housing. This is misleading as a small number of taxpayers pay for everything in any case.

Recently the City of Cape Town radically reduced its housing list simply by deleting applicants. While few houses were built, the city claims this artificial reduction as a victory. It is tragic more and better houses were built for the poor during apartheid than by the ANC and DA to date.