CoGTA to conduct oversight visit in Eastern Cape after first initiation death

The first initiate death for the 2022 summer initiation season has been recorded in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape.

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Fikile Xasa, said the department was “deeply saddened” by the death.

Initiation deaths

During the last initiation season in the Eastern Cape, 36 deaths were recorded. The current initiation season started on 4 November 2022.

Xasa said: “The committee is concerned that initiates are still dying after it engaged extensively with all the structures and stakeholders responsible for initiation in the province”.

July’s oversight visit to Eastern Cape

Back in July, CoGTA conducted an oversight visit in Eastern Cape to meet with all stakeholders – including the National Initiation Oversight Committee (NIOC) and Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC).

CoGTA also met with the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL), the provincial Department of COGTA, and law enforcement agencies in the Eastern Cape.

Xasa said the committee wanted to “ascertain whether there were practical measures in place to prevent the death of initiates”.

Lack of compliance

One of the concerns brought to the committee’s attention in July was “the general lack of compliance with the Customary Initiation Act”, Xasa said.

He said “the mushrooming of illegal initiation schools surpassed the legal schools and the admission of underage boys to these schools” was alarming.

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The committee said the provincial health department also failed to provide 45 vehicles, as promised, to “facilitate the monitoring of schools”.

“[It is a] constraint that hinders monitoring teams from fulfilling their responsibilities and hampers the provision of accurate statistics on customary male initiation,” Xasa said.

Additional nurses needed

Following the visit earlier this year, the committee also called on the health department to provide additional nurses to assist during the initiation periods.

The committee will return to the Eastern Cape next week for another oversight visit to assess compliance and implementation of the Customary Initiation Act.

Also in July, 29 schools illegally operating in the Sekhukhune region of Limpopo were shut down

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