Traditional leaders warn initiation schools to toe the line

The Congress of Traditional Leaders (Contralesa) urges initiation school owners to respect the law to avoid unnecessary deaths.

Chief Mathupa Mokoena, president of Contralesa, who is also a senior member of the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders, was commenting after several illegal schools were closed in Mpumalanga.

Recently, the police, officials from the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders and the Mpumalanga department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs shut down bogus schools and rescued initiates, who were then taken to legitimate schools.

Boys rescued from bogus initiation schools

Mokoena said the authorities were alerted by concerned community members, and monitoring teams were sent to investigate.

He said the illegal schools’ owners “kidnapped” teenagers and later demanded money from the parents.

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They also initiated underage children.

“We have closed many bogus schools in the province.

“Some owners released the children and ran away when hearing that our team was coming.

Underage children initiated

“We know that there are criminals hired to kidnap children and take them to the mountains, especially to the illegal schools.

“They are charging per child, which means the more they kidnap children the more money they make.

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“This year we want to deal with that and other related issues.

“Addressing the issues of illegal schools is one of the ways of addressing the kidnapping of children,” said Mokoena.

“Initiation seasons have started throughout the country and we want to make sure that we curb the kidnapping incidents and other things that may lead to unnecessary deaths and the abuse of initiates.”

Kidnapping of children

Mokoena reiterated that only those who have permits issued by their respective traditional leaders, the provincial house or the municipality, where there are no traditional leaders, are allowed to run these schools.

He did not divulge how many initiates had been rescued so far from bogus schools.

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The leader said the closure of the schools served as a warning to those planning to commit the same crime.

He also warned parents to be cautious and not to take their children to unregistered schools.

“When you get there, the first thing is for the principal of the school to show you the permits.

Parent, don’t take your children to unregistered schools

“And check whether the stamp is a recent one because there are people who like taking chances, who might even use old permits to run those schools.”

Anyone found to have disobeyed the Customary Initiation Act would be sent straight to jail, he said.

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He also urged people not to admit underage children to their schools.

“One other issue that I want to caution the owners of the school on is that they should not assault the initiates or treat them as if they are in the army.

“Another issue to caution the Ingoma holders about is the price that they are charging our people.

Ingoma is not a money-making scheme

“Ingoma is not a money-making scheme. Therefore, those prices will be monitored.

“If we discover that you are charging exorbitant amounts, you will regret it because we will simply tell the parents not to pay.”

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