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The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is deeply saddened by the passing of the first initiate in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape Province since the summer initiation season started on 4 November 2022.
 
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. In July the committee undertook an oversight visit to the province to meet with all stakeholders including the National Initiation Oversight Committee, the Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committee, the National House of Traditional Leaders, the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and well as provincial law enforcement agencies.
 
The committee had undertaken the oversight visit to ascertain whether there were practical measures in place to prevent the death of initiates.
 
One of the committee’s main concerns after the July oversight visit was the general lack of compliance with the Customary Initiation Act and the mushrooming of illegal initiation schools, which surpassed the legal schools, as well as the admission of underage boys to these initiation schools.
 
The committee also expressed its concern that the provincial Department of Health had not yet availed the promised 45 vehicles to facilitate the monitoring of initiation schools, a constraint that hinders monitoring teams from fulfilling their responsibilities and hampers the provision of accurate statistics on customary male initiation.
 
After its July oversight visit, the committee recommended that the provincial Department of Health fulfill its undertaking in connection with sourcing and contracting additional professional nurses to assist with the monitoring of initiation schools.
 
The committee plans to conduct another oversight visit to the Eastern Cape province next week to assess compliance, implementation and adherence to the Customary Initiation Act during the current initiation season.
 
The committee sends its heartfelt condolences to the family of the initiate who passed away. The committee also calls on parents to follow the correct screening procedures before sending their children to initiation schools.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Fikile Xasa