NewsWrap: Teen pregnancy a major concern – Psychologist

Teen pregnancy a major concern – Psychologist

Teenage pregnancy remains a concern, and having a child at an early age can be a problem in terms of a child or teen developing developmentally. That’s the word from Clinical Psychologist Konrad van Staden who told us that the younger girls are made mother’s will see a psychological difficulty between the mother and child attaching on an emotional and psychological level.

“South Africa with the apartheid system and with the various townships and some of the activities at a low socioeconomic level in terms of crime and level of poverty, there’s a lot more trauma that’s taken place. So that has genuinely affected the ability for people to, to grow and develop a healthy psychological stance and mechanisms.” – Konrad van Staden (Clinical Psychologist)

City sees a worrying trend as smash and grab incidents spike

The City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement is encouraging you to put extra precautionary measures in place when you commute around the city. This comes as recent data has indicated an increase in smash and grab incidents, namely on Jakes Gerwel Drive. The City’s Mayco Member for Safety and Security JP Smith says CCTV footage has revealed 100 instances where individuals appeared to be casing out potential targets

“ During a recent awareness drive by our Metro Police Department, officers found many drivers and passengers who openly displayed their valuables. Even more disconcerting is when this was pointed out to them, officers were told not to concern themselves with the valuables of others. There is only so much we can do to help motorists and to make them aware of the risk, and beyond that, they must take responsibility also for their own safety.”- JP Smith (Mayoral Committee Member in the City of Cape Town for Safety and Security)

Focus on tourism: What the latest tourist stats does for the local economy

With all our socio economic issues here in Cape Town, the city has not only bagged the second spot as the world’s best city, but our tourism numbers are also up. But what does this mean for the local community and what does it mean when Cape Town gets placed on lists ranking it as the place with the best community spirit in all of Africa? Well the Western Minister for Finance and Economic Opportunities Mireille Wenger believes that these accolades don’t just speak into the Cape’s financial pockets but that it truly impacts on the local community..

“This is excellent news for our provincial economy and for hundreds of thousands of jobs supported by the tourism industry in our province. Without a doubt, the Western Cape is a destination in demand and I’d like to thank our hospitality and tourism businesses for their incredible effort in giving visitors from across the province, country and indeed the world such a warm Western Cape welcome.”- Mireille Wenger (Western Cape Minister for Finance and Economic Opportunities)

Government should be doing more to make South Africans’ lives easier- Cosatu

Government can do and should be doing more to make the lives of South Africans easier. That’s the comment made by Cosatu’s Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks who says that government must do more to alleviate the financial pressures struggling consumers are experiencing.

“ Namely, it can reduce the 28 percent of the fuel price that goes towards taxes, including sorting out the road accident fund and the chaos it continuously experiences, and thus its dependency upon the fuel levy hikes. It can also look at fixing transit to protect food from inflation, fixing metro rail and public transport to protect commuters from inflation, and of course, giving more support to ESCOM, so it is not so dependent upon these double digit electricity tariff hikes, which also helps spur inflation.” – Matthew Parks (Cosatu Parliamentary Coordinator)