Photo: Angry virgins protests topless in support of the Mayor who introduced the controversial 'Virginity Bursary' in SA

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.