At a recent event I attended, a young academic from UKZN presented us with some comparative economic statistics for the Ugu District. One of the figures he provided was the birth rate in the district, which was significantly higher than the provincial average.

Prudent

He went on to point out that in stressful economic times, such as the ones we are currently experiencing, it was prudent to encourage people to delay having children until their personal economic situation could sustain a new life. I was frankly quite dismayed by the reaction of the audience, as a ripple of sniggers and chuckles was heard.

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The subtext of his message was clearly aimed at young people, particularly school-goers, where the epidemic of teenage pregnancies is growing year on year.

Harmful

The reality is that the harm this is doing to the lives of teenage girls in particular and the economy of the country as a whole is quite staggering.

The number of schoolgirls who are able to overcome the setback of an unplanned child are very much in the minority.

Most go on to entrench themselves in the vicious cycle of poverty and underachievement that is a product of unfinished schooling.

As this young man pointed out, the financial implications are distressing.

Every child grant that is paid out to a young mother is money that could have been better used for their own upliftment.

Social grants

Furthermore, research has shown that a large proportion of new-born children also adds to the burden of other social grants and old age pensions as these children are ‘dumped’ with parents or grandparents, who themselves eke out a subsistence living in what should be their golden years.

Even couples in permanent relationships, married or not, would do well to adopt thoughtful family planning protocols to ensure that they have the resources to sustain an enlarged family. Unplanned pregnancies can often be the death knell of promising careers, and the cause of severe financial distress.

Urgent message

It is time that a stronger message be sent out to the youth in particular. Critically, pundits have emphasised that this message needs to be sent much earlier than it currently is, given the number of primary school girls falling pregnant. The channel of delivery is irrelevant, the urgency is not. This is no longer just a social issue – the economic impact has got to be acknowledged if we are to achieve a meaningful turnaround in the country’s fortunes.

After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.

He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.

Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.

More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.

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