The Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) is calling on parents to refrain from sending their boys to unregistered initiation schools.
This comes after the deaths of eight initiates since the start of the initiation season this year.
The department said hotspots for the death of initiates are the O.R. Tambo District, Buffalo City Metro, and Amathole municipality.
The 2023 initiation season saw the death of 51 boys.
The provincial COGTA said some parents were not following the right processes put in place by the department and other stakeholders such as the Department of Health and the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa).
According to the department, some youngsters are sent to bogus initiation schools without medical check-ups by the health department, while others are still too young to go through the initiation process.
“The cause of illegal initiations are…driven by money. You will find that in most instances these hooligans who are unemployed in the townships would go to parents and extort money,” said provincial COGTA spokesperson Pheello Olifant.
Olifant added that the tradition itself does not expose the boys to danger, but when it is practised by unqualified traditional surgeons it can be fatal.
-EWN
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