Mayor grants scholarships to Virgin grils, grants renewable as long as the girl proves she is still a virgin

Dudu Mazibuko

A South African mayor has awarded college scholarships to 16 young women for remaining virgins, to encourage others to be 'pure and focus on school'.

The grants were introduced this year by Dudu Mazibuko, mayor of the Uthukela district in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. Each year the mayor's office awards scholarships to more than 100 promising high school and university students from the area.

The young women who applied for the scholarships voluntarily stayed virgins and agreed to have regular virginity tests to keep their funding, Ms Mazibuko told South African talk radio station 702. 

She said: 'To us, it's just to say thank you for keeping yourself and you can still keep yourself for the next three years until you get your degree or certificate.

'The grants will be renewed 'as long as the child can produce a certificate that she is still a virgin,' she said. The mayor added that the scholarships focus on young women because they are more vulnerable to exploitation, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. 

South Africa's department of basic education recorded about 20,000 pregnancies among girls and young women in schools in 2014, with 223 pregnant girls still in primary school, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Dailymail