Some communities in the North West are calling on the government to intervene and stop what is believed to be illegal initiation schools alleged to be abducting children and extorting money from their parents.
The families said they are frustrated with the criminal justice system as no action is ever taken against the abductors.
Parents of the boys forced into initiation said their children’s abductors are phoning to make demands and yet the police are failing to act against them.
Mogolo Ledikwa from Lehurutshe said she was concerned about her son who is sickly, after she was called by a man on Tuesday night telling her that her 16-year-old was at the initiation school and that she needed to send groceries to feed him.
“I was called by a man named Mopheme Tuesday night telling me that my son was now at an initiation school. This was after he went missing around 14h00. He asked me to send a goat and mielie meal.
“He also said he needed R6 000 and that I will have to cook food and slaughter another animal, and buy alcohol for them when my son comes back home. As I’m talking to you right now, we don’t even have food at the house, I won’t be able to do all those things.
“My child did not want to go to the initiation school because he is sick and still has to go to hospital for treatment. I then went to the police station to open a case. The police then told me to go report at another police station in Madikwe, where I was told to come back here,” said Ledikwa.
Another parent, Lesego Mothupi from Mahikeng called on the police to take action against those who take their children without their parents’ permission.
“I have been going to the police station for a week now. The police are failing us because in most cases we get tipped off about the whereabouts of the children and the police will just tell us that there are no police vehicles to go search for them.
“We have taken it upon ourselves to look for our kids. We are not police officials and are certainly not trained in this job, but we seem to be doing a better job looking for them ourselves. The police did not open a case for us because they say they cannot open a case of kidnapping because we don’t know who the kidnappers are.
“The so-called initiation school owners don’t respect us. How can they take our children without our permission only to extort money from us? We are struggling to raise our kids as it is. Some of us are single mothers just hustling for our children, only for them to come and use them to make easy money. We need the police to really take action against such cases,” said Mothupi.
