THE Bakoena Royal House at Monontsha Village in QwaQwa, Free State celebrated Heritage Day on Sunday, 24 September with an intensive educational session on how initiation should be conducted.
The royal house together with the provincial Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) invited initiation gurus to teach residents and potential initiators on the correct procedures to follow when initiating young people.
The royal house has received numerous complaints with regard to the injustice and immense level of crime happening at some of the schools in the mountains.
Provincial chairman of Contralesa Pitso Nowe highlihghte that initiation school is a cultural practice that used to transform young men to adulthood, not a hub of criminals hiding behind the culture.
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Nowe encourages villagers to report unregistered initiators to royal house so that a decisive decision would be executed to avoid loss of lives as it happened previous years ago.
"There're people who are misusing this cultural norm. We harshly condemn the opportunists who are taking young people to the mountain without their parents' concern and who are involved in the criminal activities.
"We are calling upon the traditional leaders to ensure that people who participate in this cultural norm have the required credentials. It should be people who know the procedure. The involvement of police, Home Affairs, Health, local municipality as well as Royal house should dectate on decision making," he said.
Nowe has also proposed initiation school gap year to address all the challenges including the arlaming rate of criminal activities, deaths, and gangsterism.
During his address in the event, King Dibenyana Mopeli said royal house won't condone the bunch of murderers to take a front seat of the initiation schools.
"We have men of integrity who are capable enough to handle the school in a respectful manner. We need to be very aggressive when it comes to tackling criminal elements at initiation schools.
"We have always witnessed some people going to the mountains with alcohol and dangerous weapons. How can we call them initiation school teachers whereas they're criminals? We are also callong for extension of initiation school duration. Four weeks is not enough," he said.
