Leader issues stern warning
"Ingoma is not an ATM or a way of making money, it's a culture that needs to be respected," - Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena.
MBOMBELA – “Ingoma is not an ATM or a way of making money, it’s a culture that needs to be respected.”
These were the stern words of the provincial chairperson of the house of traditional leaders, Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena, on cautioning against the running of illegal initiation schools in the region. He warned that those who followed that route, would meet harsh opposition.
He indicated they had embarked on a campaign to close all illegal initiation schools in the province in order to avoid being in the headlines for the wrong reasons – since 27 boys had died after attending such schools.
“Last year we established a task team to monitor these issues and we realised that we had been too soft, but this time around, we are going to meet fire with fire and are not going to compromise.
We want people who are competent to run ingoma. They must meet the standards, and it shouldn’t be about making money by putting other people’s lives in danger.”
He added, “I would also like to urge parents to do more research into initiation schools and their operators.
Some of them are illegal and when you want your child to attend ingoma, ask the person in charge to show you papers from traditional leaders. If he fails to produce them, then you must know that he’s a fly-by-night or illegal.
If parents allow something like that to happen right under their noses and we don’t act, our children will be so embarrassed when they find out the truth,” he said.
He concluded by emphasising the fact that parents should first take the child to a doctor to find out whether he is fit to undergo initiation or not.
