Women's rights activists have criticised a municipality for a scholarship programme that funds studies for young women if they can prove they are virgins.
On Friday, the uThekela municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal, announced that 113 students would receive scholarships to pursue higher education in the country. Sixteen scholarships were specifically designated for sexually inactive students, as part of a programme called Maiden's Bursary Awards. The programme started in January 2015, but it is unclear how many students were awarded the scholarship in 2015.
Sisonke Msimang, a policy development and advocacy consultant for the Sonke Gender Justice project in Johannesburg, said the municipality's decision was "a terrible idea [that] had so many layers of ridiculousness".
"Being sexually active and seeking an education have nothing to do with each other," Msimang told Al Jazeera.
Msimang described the programme as being an embodiment of "level upon level of patriarchal nonsense, unconstitutional misogyny and mixed-up madness."
Jabulani Mkhonza, spokesperson for the municipality, described the scholarships for virgins as a way to encourage "girls to keep themselves pure and inactive from sexual activity and focus on their studies".
"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," Mkhonza told media.
Reacting to the news, the department of women told they were aware of reports of the scholarship programme, and would be investigating the matter.
"We don't support anything that undermines the rights of women. If these details are true, we would definitely find it objectionable, and engage with the municipality to resolve it," Charlotte Lobe, media liaison officer at the department of women said.
