Angry maidens took to the streets of Ladysmith, KZN, South
Africa on Friday, February 5, 2016, in support of the controversial
virginity bursary. They have vowed to continue supporting the Uthukela
mayor, Dudu Mazibukomayor who introduced the bursary scheme.
"If
the government can give young, unemployed mothers child support grants,
why shouldn’t the mayor help virgins for preserving their culture?" they asked.
Many
groups have criticised the mayor. Higher education and social
development departments have called on the mayor to cancel the bursary
scheme for maidens. The Gender for Equality Commission said the awards
encourage inequalities and must be stopped immediately.
People
Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) has slammed an alleged bursary programme
that funds studies for young women, but only if they can prove they’re
virgins.
The Maidens Bursary was created by the KwaZulu-Natal municipality
to fund higher education for young women. It’s been reported that 16
young South African women are the
beneficiaries of the scholarship, which funds their higher education.
It’s believed the girls are regularly examined, allegedly to ascertain
if they’re still virgins.
Powa’s Palesa Mpapa said, "The fact that we are align it to the right
to education is not making sense. It’s also discriminating in that
within the girls being lured into bursaries on the basis of virginity
and what are we saying about boys."
Mpapa added that the practice of virginity testing is unconstitutional.
"If anyone wants to keep their virginity, it’s their right to do it
in their individual capacity. It’s a personal issue, which is not
supposed to be done in public and it’s also not good that the agencies are using it in order for the girls to get bursaries."
The UThukela District Municipality says it created the so called
“virgin bursaries” to deter young women from getting involved with older
men. Mayor Dudu Mazibuko says the program is meant to encourage young girls to abstain from sex and focus of education.
"There was a study by the health department that "found that" young
girls are more vulnerable than boys. There is no pressure at all, in
fact this is an incentive because we are talking girls that have taken
the decision to keep their virginity. Young girls are more vulnerable, they are the ones
that fall in love with sugar daddies, get diseases and fall pregnant and
then their lives are messed up."
Dudu
Zwane, 50 a virginity tester and leader of Izimbali zoThukela where
virgins are registered, said the maidens and parents are calling on
groups to leave the mayor alone.
She said they were disturbed
that government was criticising the awards while it was spending
billions on child support grants. She said they expected government to
support the awards because it was part of the campaign to fight
HIV/Aids.
"We encourage abstinence but there are people telling our kids they have rights to sleep with men," said Dudu.
The mayor said she was not part of the march and told the SunTeam to speak to the maidens’ matrons.
A 32-year-old virgin and recipient of the award, Bongiwe Sithole said she came from
the Free State University to march. She said if it wasn’t for the
awards, she would still be at home because her dad didn’t have money to
send her to university.
Source: Daily Sun SA.
Additional report: EWN
