Traditional initiation schools to be conducted this winter
According to Mokoena, they will introduce Covid-19 precautionary measures in all the schools, and they will work with law enforcement agencies to fight against illegal initiation schools.
BURGERSFORT – After a two-year suspension due to Covid-19, traditional initiation schools will resume this winter.
The Covid-19 pandemic had forced initiation schools to close down since 2020.
The president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa), Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena, recently announced that initiation schools are now allowed to reopen.
According to Mokoena, they will introduce Covid-19 precautionary measures in all the schools, and they will work with law enforcement agencies to fight against illegal initiation schools.
“We agreed that if a principal of a particular school used to have 100 initiates, we are going to scale down the number so that they are manageable, so that even at our schools, there is social distancing. We will demand that any Ingoma holder and school principal make sure that all PPE must be in place, such as sanitisers and others.
“We are not going to compromise on that. And that is why we are calling on people who want to have Ingoma to be ready to adhere to all those requirements.”
Meanwhile, the Limpopo chairperson of Contralesa, Kgoshi Malesela Dikgale, has commended the traditional surgeons and leaders who adhered and obeyed to the laws during the initiation schools’ sabbatical.
