Initiation deaths continue to plague the country despite ongoing appeals for vigilance and full compliance with the Customary Initiation Act.
The summer initiation season officially started on 1 November.
In early December, the Eastern Cape already recorded five deaths, one in Buffalo City Municipality, two in Chris Hani District Municipality and two in OR Tambo District Municipality.
At the time, the province had already made 21 arrests linked to illegal initiation activities.
The number of deaths has continued to rise since then, with Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Velenkosini Hlabisa, confirming that 41 initiates have lost their lives across several provinces.
Negligence
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday, the minister attributed the deaths to negligence by school principals and parents.
“The reason why we activated our monitoring to be stronger on Christmas Eve is because we knew the high rate of possibility of negligence, because what we have noticed, where there are deaths, is as a result of negligence,” Hlabisa told the news channel.
“The first one, dehydration, the initiates are told not to drink water, so that they can heal faster, and that is wrong information. If you don’t drink water for almost more than a month, you are not going to survive.
“We want to make an appeal, because some of the boys are told by parents at home that you do not drink water before you go there, do not drink water when you are there, because I want you to heal quicker. That is wrong information; if you don’t drink water, you will suffer from dehydration.
“A huge number of deaths is an irresponsible behaviour of the principals of schools, and some parents who compel boys not to drink water.
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“Secondly, there is negligence in terms of meeting health standards in some of the initiation schools.
“If you take your child to an initiation school, you never make a follow-up, you do not monitor, you do not go there to see whether the child does drink water, you are placing your child at risk. “
Initiation deaths and arrests
The minister said the government was tightening the laws to ensure those responsible for initiate deaths are brought to book.
He said 41 people had been arrested during this initiation season. Among them are two parents who falsified their children’s ages, stating they were 18 when they were 13.
“You can’t have a 13-year-old because that is a child, it’s a crime, and they have been arrested. We have agreed in the last meeting we had together with the Minister of Justice that now we are going to mobilise localised courts around these provinces so that when a person is arrested, the consequence management follows in order to crack down on this problem.
“Going into winter, everyone who is going to perform the task as a traditional surgeon must be a registered person with a history of successfully doing this.
“If a parent appoints someone who is not registered as a traditional surgeon, that parent is going to be arrested because you are putting your child at risk in the hands of someone you don’t know, with no competence.
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“We have had amputations, which is a painful thing. A young man going there, coming back no longer a complete person. This is a result of taking your child into the hands of someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.
“If a parent takes a child to make a school, we are going to hold the parent accountable, and you should have verified that this is not a medical school, and you are going to face the consequences of the law.”
The summer initiation season concludes in January 2026.
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