Speaking on Saturday during the closure of an initiation school in his village, Hosi Ngove stressed the importance of prioritising tradition over profit. He highlighted that this approach would encourage more parents to send their children to initiation schools without being hindered by financial constraints. “In our case, we don’t just circumcise boys and send them away. We have programmes that run until the end of September to guide them on how to become better men.

These programmes teach them what is expected of a man in the community as he grows up,” he said. His comments came after he successfully hosted an initiation school for over 2 000 initiates without a single death. “We had initiates coming from 54 villages across the Mopani and Vhembe districts, and for us to have successfully hosted such a large number of initiates without sustaining any deaths, shows good management,” he said.

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The MEC for CoGHSTA, Basikopo Makamu, said the initiation school at Ngove village is the biggest in the province. “The official number is 2100, which is why I decided to come here to witness it myself,” he said. He said this indicates that people still love their culture.

“What impressed me even more was that all the initiates looked healthy, just like in the old days when our forefathers used to host initiation schools. They had a way of ensuring that everybody went home healthy,” he continued. According to him, the province has an estimated 70 000 initiates this year. “I can’t give you the official figure at this stage because the number keeps changing every day as more initiates join,” he said.