Call for two-year ban to prevent initiation deaths

The deaths of 20 initiates during the latest holiday season has led to traditional leaders calling for the temporary banning of initiation schools in the Eastern Cape.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) said the idea was to give stakeholders time to come up with a plan to avoid the deaths of initiates.

Contralesa national chairperson chief Mathupa Mokoena told The Citizen that something was wrong for one province to always experience the deaths of initiates every year and that serious measures were needed to address the issue.

Something is wrong

“Contralesa is shocked to learn of the passing on of not less than 20 initiates during this summer initiation season. It is embarrassing that in this same province we are experiencing the same thing every year.

“We are calling for a two-year moratorium in the province. No one must be allowed to open an initiation school for two years.”

ALSO READ: Eastern Cape summer initiation season claims 20 boys’ lives

“During this period all stakeholders must come together and come up with tangible and practical methods about how to address this carnage. The death of initiates in that province is not a challenge but a national disaster”

“Something extraordinary must happen. It can’t be business as usual. Contralesa has already suggested this to the provincial government of the Eastern Cape and the minister,” Mokoena said.

He said it was essential to make sure that those who were found to be responsible or played a part in the circumstances leading to the deaths should be arrested.

Those responisible for initiation deaths must be arrested

Addressing the media, Eastern Cape MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) Zolile Williams said most of the initiates died as a result of not drinking water.

Wiliams called on initiation school owners to stop telling initiates that if they don’t drink water, their circumcision wounds will heal faster.

ALSO READ: Court sentences four men for initiate’s death at illegal Eastern Cape initiation school

“According to doctors the body of a person needs water to keep on functioning well.

“Young men must also undergo health screening so that their health status is known because it is dangerous to admit them without having their health records,” said Williams.

Cogta’s recent summer initiation season preliminary report indicated several challenges including the lack or limited understanding of customary male circumcision among school principals, lack of community support and parental involvement and increasing crime incidents in the schools.

Challenges to summer season

The report said 25 cases of unlawful circumcisions were opened resulting in the arrests of 23 people. During last year’s summer initiation season, the province recorded 35 deaths while 23 died in 2022.

On December 14, the portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs released a statement detailing the findings of their three-day oversight visit to Alfred Nzo and OR Tambo districts in the Eastern Cape.

ALSO READ: African spirituality: Contralesa calls for access to ancestral sites

“During this visit, the committee assessed some initiation sites’ compliance with the Customary Initiation Act.”

“The committee focused on districts that historically were hotspots for initiation-related deaths. Concluding the oversight visit at OR Tambo’s Mhlontlo local municipality yesterday, the committee was informed of three deaths of initiates during the summer initiation season in Mhlontlo.”

“Two of the deaths were of initiates who were illegally circumcised, while one was legally circumcised. No tangible and satisfactory report was provided on the arrests of the perpetrators of the illegal initiation,” the statement read.

Arrest perpetrators

Committee chair Dr Zweli Mkhize has called for the arrests of the perpetrators.

He said the country must fight against the deaths like it did with HIV and Covid.

NOW READ: Initiation schools accused of kidnapping boys in Mpumalanga