Childbearing adolescents’ access to social protection in Grabouw, Western Cape Province

Abstract

Social protection is a universal right and has been institutionalised in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Enshrined in this right are entitlements to health care, basic education and social assistance for those who cannot provide for themselves. This case study looks at the social protection needs of a particularly vulnerable group of people – adolescent mothers – who live in formal and informal settlements1 on the outskirts of Grabouw, Western Cape Province. Findings suggest that despite challenges in equitable service delivery in South Africa, the adolescent mothers in Grabouw are on the whole accessing their basic services. Their experiences alluded to the fact that they were not afforded the respect expected of professional health care services, but the school that some of them attended was supportive of them and encouraged them to complete their grade twelve. The over-riding element to this study was that despite their access to basic services and social assistance, they were more affected by family dysfunctionality and being trapped in chronic poverty. They had aspirations and hopes for a different life, and in some ways, it appeared that their early pregnancies were experienced as some sort of compensation for this entrapment.