Elderly people, especially in rural areas still see the value of having virgins but in the townships and suburbs a virgin is disregarded. However, Ekurhuleni news discovered a place in the Daveyton township, Emaphupheni where young girls still celebrate being virgins or “Intombi”.These young girls are 386 in number and are all guided by Ugogo Mthethwa who is the founder of ‘Ubuhle bey’intombi Zegcuce foundation’. They are brought to ‘Ugogo Mthethwa’ by their parents trusting ‘Ugogo’ to guide them towards greener pastures with her ancient wisdom as an elderly member of the community.“We’re raising young girls who are virgins, we educate them not to get into romantic relationships at an early age because they will get pregnant as teenagers and after giving birth men who impregnated them abandon them and they are left alone to raise kids as single mothers and end up losing hope in their future,” ugogo Mthethwa said.
These young girls save their virginity as per Ugogo’s instructions until they reach the age of 16 and then a ceremony will be hosted to welcome them into womanhood as virgins. During this ceremony they are celebrated, given presents and encouraged to keep their virginity further until they get married. “We keep telling them that romantic relationship is not for kids but for adults and they shouldn’t even think about it, but they must just focus on their studies,” said Ugogo Mthethwa“We keep guiding and testing their virginity until they reach the age of 21 where we start to get them ready for marriage and prepare them for a romantic relationship, added Ugogo Mthethwa.
