”Can a condom protect your heart? Can a condom protect your mind? Can a condom protect your virginity?” asks a crew member from Silver Ring Thing, an international purity organisation. It is a Saturday night in Eldorado Park and the community hall is packed with young people who have come to see the Silver Ring Thing show.
Outside queues grow as young people fill in membership forms to join up and receive a silver ring. The ring is a symbol of the pledge to remain sexually pure until marriage and serves as a daily reminder of that decision.
In a demonstration of flashing lights and personal testimonies, videos and educational drama, the Silver Ring team urges its young audience to resist the temptation of having sex and avoid the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. After each event members receive follow-up emails for months, encouraging them to remain pure.
The Silver Ring Thing has a crew of four guys and three girls. They educate young people about the dangers of having premarital sex and caution against oral sex and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), such as syphilis and HIV/Aids. Silver Ring Thing’s message is: ‘Do not advertise what is not for sale — it is the only body you have.â€
Crew member Linda Mbethe says: ‘I’ve been abstaining for 22 years and if I can do it you can also do it. Sex is not something that you can give to just anyone; it’s a gift.†It is an attitude that inspires confidence in younger people.
Mmeli Hlangani (15) says: ‘I joined the programme to abstain because I’m too young to have sex.†Silver Ring Thing is the fastest-growing abstinence programme in the United States, with 250 000 members, and it is gaining international recognition.
The concept is the brainchild of Denny Pattyn, an American pastor who started the programme in 1995 in reaction to the escalating rate of teenage pregnancy. Since it was launched in South Africa in February 2005, 18 893 young people have committed to abstinence. Unlike virginity testing, the Silver Ring Thing believes in second chances. The programme does not judge participants. It is not necessary to be a virgin when you join, as long as you promise to abstain from sex until marriage. There are many men who have pledged to remain pure. On this particular night about 45% of the audience is male — ranging in age from about 14 to 35.
In KwaZulu-Natal, where female virginity testing is popular, men are rarely concerned with purity. They laugh at men who choose to abstain. Unlike virginity testing, young people participate voluntarily and not because of parental pressure. Virginity testing is discriminatory as the emphasis is only on girls. The idea of girls being paraded around half naked in the name of tradition demeans women.
Both Zulu King Zwelithini and Swazi King Mswati III claim the practice combats HIV/Aids, yet KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland have prevalence rates of 52% and 42,6% respectively. It also feeds into the myth that sleeping with a virgin cures HIV/Aids, which leads to the rape of many young girls.