DEATH continues to strike young boys undergoing traditional circumcision during the winter and summer seasons.
Twenty-eight initiates have died since the start of the summer initiation season in November 2023.
The execution-style killing of three initiates in two separate incidents sent shock waves across the province. In Butterworth, Eastern Cape, two initiates and their brother were shot dead, while another initiate was gunned down in Gqeberha.
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CRL Rights Commission spokesman Mpiyakhe Mkholo said: “The commission hangs its head in deep pain and sorrow at the unnecessary and senseless deaths of the initiates in the Eastern Cape. In that province, we are witnessing a crisis of accountability and disregard for the rule of law and bringing into disrepute the cultural practice of initiation.
“For far too long, culture has wrongly been implicated as an instrument of death of the initiates, far from it. Efforts to curb the deaths of initiates in the Eastern Cape have not yielded positive results as we had indaba before the winter initiation season.”
He continued:
CRL Rights Commission chairman Professor David Mosoma appeals to law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate and bring to book all the perpetrators of deaths at initiation schools.
He said: “If crime is found to have been committed in the act of initiation and those who shot and killed the initiates, long sentences should be handed down as a deterrent for their crime, negligence and or botched circumcision and penile amputations. As a commission, we have reached a stage where action to end deaths in initiation schools in the province is more important than spending time in describing the problems of the deaths without providing lasting solutions.
“The deaths of initiates present a call to courage to all of us to do what is right, save the initiates and bring about change. In January 2024, the commission will convene to consider appropriate steps and actions to end the deaths of the initiates in the Eastern Cape.”
MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zolile Williams, is expected to visit initiation schools in Dimbaza and Mdantsane in Buffalo City on Wednesday, 20 December to monitor the initiation process.
