A combination of macro level and bottom-up strategies that address social, economic and gender inequality among young women are urgently needed in South Africa.
This is according to Dr Yanga Zembe, a Senior Scientist from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) during a recent HIV/AIDS seminar hosted by DUT’s Department of Counseling and Health.
Dr Zembe, whose thesis statement is Analysis and exploration of sexual risk taking, agency and intimate partner violence among women who have multiple sexual partners in South Africa, presented her research to DUT students and staff on Thursday (9 October 2014) last week.
Young women face the highest risk of HIV infection than any other group in South Africa. Within the broad population of young women, those who have multiple sexual partners are thought to have a heightened risk of contracting the virus.
Dr Zembe, an emerging expert in sexual risk taking, said qualitative evidence suggests that transactional sex, age mixing, inconsistent condom use and intimate partner violence are the leading risk factors that contribute to the risk of HIV among young women in the country. Sexual risk taking has been defined as unprotected sex, sex with multiple partners and early onset of sexual activity.
One of the driving factors of Dr Zembe’s research was that there was sparse evidence on how risks and vulnerability factors combine to heighten HIV and the particular ways in which young women use their sexual behaviour to negotiate life. Her research found that there were extremely high rates of sexual risk taking established among the largely adolescent, school going and poor subpopulation of young women. “Nearly all of them had engaged in transactional sex with their most recent sexual partner (91%), 87% and 77% reported concurrency and inconsistent condom use respectively in the past three months,” she said.
There were eight out of 10 reported experiences of intimate partner violence and 70% reported sexual coercion at sexual debut. Having high numbers of partners in a short space of time increased the likelihood of inconsistent condom use with main and casual partners.
The qualitative findings confirmed the high levels of sexual risk taking among the young women, and suggested a combination of relational, social, economic and household arrangements as the main drivers of their risk behaviours.
Dr Jabu Ngobese-Ngubane from DUT’s Department of Homeopathy said solutions could be drawn from the very fibre of a family unit and good elements of parenting. She said some of the reasons of high HIV prevalence and sexual violence against young women emanated from negligence by parents who failed to groom their children.
Other solutions discussed at the seminar were collective strategies that dealt with issues such as poverty and gender inequality. Dr Zembe proposed that society needed to confront the negative impact of global technologies and popular youth culture on young women.
– Gift Nyampfene
Pictured: Mthokhozisi Mnculwane, Administrative Assistant at DUT’s Department of Counseling and Health; Dr Yanga Zembe, Senior Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council, Ndumiso Ngidi; DUT Department of Counseling and Health Project Officer and Siyabonga Vumane, Health Promoter at the Department of Counseling and Health.
