Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, said the government will close all illegal initiation schools in the Eastern Cape, after 27 initiates died during the summer season.
Hlabisa also expressed concern that 253 initiates have died in the Eastern Cape alone since 2019, adding that most of the deaths were preventable.
Hlabisa was speaking in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, after convening an emergency ministerial meeting with local traditional leaders amid the high number of fatalities among initiates.
“It’s unfortunate because the parents have lost their children, and it’s going to remain a permanent scar.
The initiation schools that have no trouble in terms of death, there should be no reason to suspend them.
But there are consistent areas, every year, we talk about big figures.
It’s either they’re not doing it right deliberately, or they’re not ready to do it right.
Why not suspend them for a certain period, get all structures in place,” said Hlabisa.
In addition, the minister said some those who died are “breadwinners, others are the only children that the families had, while others were future leaders.”
The minister said 23 people have been arrested in relation to the 27 initiates deaths and vowed that they’ll ensure that the school principals and the people who performed illegal circumcision or broke protocols, are prosecuted and suffer the consequences.
He commended the initiation schools that are following all the correct traditional and cultural protocols and described them as “cultural custodians with zero recorded deaths” and that there’s no need to close them.
He said some of the reasons that there are such incidents happen at illegal schools, is because some of them don’t follow proper protocols.
Hlabisa conveyed government’s condolences to the families’ victims and implored on parents to verify if such schools are registered, before they send their children to them.
The minister condemned some of the abhorrible conditions at some of the schools.
“We also want to speak strongly against the notion that the initiates must not drink water when they undergo this culture.
If you don’t drink water, as hot as it is today, you will be dehydrated, collapse and eventually lose your life.
Our initiates wherever they are, the principals of the initiation schools, must be human enough, 27 isn’t just a figure, these are human beings,” explained Hlabisa.
So that the culture can be supported and promoted as other initiation schools are able to enroll and compete with a full set of the boys still alive.
The minister said they’ll engage traditional leaders as cultural custodians within the first three weeks of January, and devise measures on how to stop the scourge of initiates deaths.
“After this engagement, we must come with a radical approach, to have zero deaths at the initiation schools
The consideration of suspending in other areas, once consultation has been done, moving towards the winter season, it is going to be on the table, and we would pronounce once we have reached an informed consultation and agreed upon,” stressed Hlabisa.
