This week Siyayinqoba Beat It! returns to some of the stories which have attracted a huge response from our viewers. Earlier this season our CJs met Lindokuhle Shezi and the ten orphans she was caring for in difficult circumstances whilst struggling to obtain social grants. In this episode we revisit the Shezis and also pick up on a story from last season about a young girl who was abducted and forced into marriage. Our CJs return to the same area to speak to other young girls and community members about the practice of Ukuthwala.
The coverage of the Shezi children’s plight prompted a number of viewers to take action. Representatives of the Department of Social Development provided them with food vouchers and guidance on how to access grants. Sibongile Setlaba from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) explains that whether or not a parent or guardian has an ID book and the children have birth certificates, they can still go to SASSA and apply for assistance. Child support and foster care grants are available for parents and guardians who lack means and are struggling to care for children.
The Shezi children also received clothes and money from friends while a donor from Johannesburg gave clothes, toiletries and groceries for Christmas and sent the children new shoes for the school year. The Shezis now live with their older sister Mbali, who is acting as their adult carer. “During Christmas,” say the children, “we were happy because we were like the other children.” It is estimated that almost two million children have been orphaned in South Africa because of HIV but people should not be dying. Parents can test and access treatment which will enable them to live a long life and care for their children.
In the last season of Beat It! we also brought you the story of a young girl who was abducted and forced into marriage. At Palmerton Care Centre near Nqibekane village in Kwacele a teenager describes being grabbed by a group of men as she walked to the shop one day: “They dragged me naked down the road back to this house. They said I must sit down and told me that I’m married now. When I called home they told me to stay there. So I was forced to stay and they said I can’t go to school.”
Many community members support this practice of Ukuthwala. One man says of girls in the community: “by the time they’re 18 years old they’ll have had three babies and no husband. That’s why we sell them when they reach 14.” Yet the Constitution and the Sexual Offences Act aim to protect young girls. Anybody under the age of 16 is not allowed to engage in sexual activity and a child does not have the right to enter into a contract, including marriage. If a child is “married” in this way, it has no standing in law.
Mrs Nokuzola Mdende, an expert in culture and tradition is outraged by the practice: “The law must be strict … they should ban Ukuthwala. Why is it a tradition that only caters for men who kill the souls of young girls? That kind of tradition doesn’t uplift …” This view is backed-up by the Constitution which supersedes customary law in cases of conflict. Yet there are still areas of the country where Ukuthwala is common and young girls are condemned to miserable and dangerous lives.