Mpumalanga health MEC Sasekani Manzini has welcomed 50 New Year babies while lamenting the overall teenage pregnancy crisis facing the province, totalling more than 9 000 teenage pregnancies recorded in the province.
Manzini visited Shongwe Hospital in the Nkomazi Local Municipality on New Year’s Day to present provincial statistics on the much-celebrated births, with 23 being males and 27 being females.
She said the first baby of the year 2026 was born at 12:05am in Witbank Hospital by a 24-year-old mother and the baby is a boy weighing 2800g.
However, of concern for Manzini was the issue of teenage pregnancies, with the youngest New Year mother in Mpumalanga being 14 years old out of six teenagers who gave birth on the same day.
“We have registered one case of a 14-year-old at Themba Hospital. It’s a very serious matter. From the side of the Department of Health, we need to fill out a form called Form 22, so that we can take it to the Department of Social Development for processing,” she said.
Manzini said this will enable officials to take the matter up with the police and the National Prosecuting Authority.
Most shocking was the revelation that Mpumalanga registered a staggering 9 712 teenage pregrancies record in 2025 alone.
“As a province, we have recorded 9 712 teenage pregnancies,” she said. “Out of that are those that are above the age of seventeen. This is a programme that we are going to work on as a cluster…so that as a provincial government we are able to deal with these cases.”
Manzini said a societal challenge exacerbating teenage pregnancy was how parents and religious institutions often oppose measures to teach teenagers about protecting themselves from pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
“People say that government is encouraging young people to involve themselves in sexual intercourse at an early age, but the reality is that these are the numbers of teenage pregnancy,” Manzini said. “We need to work very well with the communities themselves and the parents. Some communities resist. Even when we want to take the [educational programmes] to school, parents say we are teaching their children to start [engaging] in intercourse.”
Visit SW YouTube Channel for our video content
