By Thapelo Molefe
The recent initiation season in the Eastern Cape has been marked by tragedy, with 14 young initiates losing their lives in various districts across the province.
According to acting secretary of the House of Traditional Leaders, Vuyo Stofile, the deaths occurred in OR Tambo, Port St Johns, Ngqeleni, Libode, Mqanduli, Tsolo, Mhlontlo, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Amathole Stofile said that dehydration was identified as a leading cause of death, often due to the harmful myth amongst initiates that drinking water would hinder the healing process.
“We lose most initiates in the first week of initiation and what we have picked up when doing our assessment, we found that during this time dehydration is very much prevalent as the cause of death of initiates,” he said.
“We found that they practice not to drink water for maybe three weeks before they go to the initiation school hence when they arrive there they die.”
Stofile was addressing the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on the outcome of the winter initiation season.
He emphasised the need for education and intervention to prevent these kinds of deaths.
“As a result, what we will be doing going forward is that as we are doing the pre- screening for them before they go to initiation, another thing we will be doing is to test the levels of dehydration. So, that is the intervention we will be embarking on,” Stofile said.
He highlighted several challenges in monitoring initiation schools, including capacity constraints, accessibility issues and community cooperation.
“Another problem we have is the increasing crime in the initiation schools and the problem of drugs that is beginning to take place,” Sofile told committee members.
“Also, the poor participation of traditional leaders in some areas you will find that they are not much involved and [there is a] lack of active involvement of community members.”
Stofile stressed the importance of parental involvement, citing it as the main cause of the problems.
“The issue of customary initiation is a family issue. The fact that the government is intervening is because it noticed that there is a problem in the management of the custom. Under normal circumstances it is supposed to be families that are involved
in that,” he said.
In response to these challenges, the Provincial Initiation Committee plans to engage with traditional leaders, municipalities and communities to ensure compliance with the Customary Initiation Act.
Monitoring teams will be deployed to all districts and a justice subcommittee has been established to fast-track initiation-related cases.
The province recorded a total of 8,531 screened boys, with 3,667 legal schools and 145 illegal schools. Despite efforts to prevent illegal practices, many initiates still fall victim to unqualified practitioners and unsafe conditions.
The Eastern Cape government has vowed to take action to prevent such tragedies in future initiation seasons.
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