South Africa offers study grants for virgin girls

A South African region on Friday said it had
launched a new grant scheme for girls who
remain virgins throughout the course of their
university studies, triggering outrage among
rights groups.
The bursary offered in Uthukela,in the southeast of
the country near Durban city, is the brainchild of
municipality’s female mayor Dudu Mazibujo.
News of the grant scheme sent shockwaves among
civil society groups, with one women’s association
branding it unconstitutional.
“The bursaries are for young girls who are still
virgins,” municipality spokesman Jabulani Mkhonza
told AFP.
“It’s a new category which the mayor has introduced
this year,” he said, adding that the goal is to
encourage “young girls to keep themselves pure and
inactive from sexual activity and focus on their
studies.”
Beneficiaries of the grant will be subjected to regular
virginity tests, he added.
“Those children who have been awarded bursaries will
be checked whenever they come back for holidays.
The bursary will be taken away if they lose their
virginity,” said Mkhonza.
The People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) group,
said it was shocked that taxpayers’ money was being
used to violate girls’ rights.
“POWA is shocked to hear that young girls are being
tested for virginity in order to get bursaries… it’s a
violation of their rights,” the group’s executive
director Nonhlanhla Mokwena told AFP.
“That is taxpayers’ money that is being used to
violate girls… (and) the constitution of this country.”
Many South Africans from poor backgrounds rely on
government grants to get through university.
Planned university fee hikes last year provoked
sometimes violent protests nationwide.