Initiates walk on a field in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape. | Reuters
Johannesburg - The MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the Eastern Cape, Zolile Williams, said extra caution had been taken to ensure that young initiates were kept safe from the freezing temperatures gripping most of the country.
Williams said government officials were on the ground ensuring that initiation schools were taking extra measures to ensure that initiates were warm and not at risk of hypothermia and other conditions that could lead to death.
“Officials from our department are on the ground, visibly monitoring that the boys are being given hot meals. That their hearts are being protected enough during this cold weather. So we are on the ground so that we can ameliorate any bad situation that can happen there,” Williams said.
Williams said the provincial government was working closely with provincial police to ensure that illegal initiation schools were found and shut down before any deaths occurred.
“I was in the area of Bizana last week to monitor some of the schools, and we lost around three boys there from these schools who were illegal and unknown. I sat there with the provincial police commissioner and the local station commissioner, and I asked them why. All these deaths are from illegal schools,” he said.
Williams said about 800 boys had been circumcised. He said in all the legal initiation schools that he had visited, the initiates were healthy and in good condition.
“Only those that are illegal create these problems, so I gave instructions to the commissioner and the station commissioner to say, please, guys, can’t we engage crime intelligence,” he said.
Williams also cautioned parents to ensure that their children go to a credible initiation school to avoid problems in the long run.
Meanwhile, two men appeared in a North West court this week after being accused of kidnapping two young boys and admitting them to their illegal initiation school.
A number of boys were rescued from the school, but some had to be treated for mutilation wounds on their private parts.
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