An initiation school participant was found drowned in the dam in Winburg in the Free state on Friday, 6 January.
The incident comes after a 60-year-old initiation school owner held initiation school rituals on the said date in Makeleketla, Winburg, when a teacher took 33 young boys for an initiation bathing in the dam.
According to sources, the boy has once disappeared from the school and went to the Winburg cop shop due to hunger, thirst and alleged death threats where he asked for police intervention.
"Police should do thorough investigations. He was bathing with other boys but no one saw him drown. We suspect the gang fights within the innitiation schools. This is inhumane. The teacher and owner must be taken for interogation," said the source.
Police spokesman Captain Steven Thankeng said he counted 32 of the initiates.
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"He realises that a boy was missing and Winburg police were informed and divers were summoned to the scene."
Thakeng said after a thorough search in the dam, the body was found and retrieved from the water.
The deceased was certified dead by Emergency Medical Services.
The deceased's family member, Hendrick van Wyk, was at the scene to identify the body as that of his cousin, Teboho Wilson Shomelekae, who was part of the innitiation intake.
Shomelekae is a second initiate to have died mysteriously during the initiation season in the province after a 36-year-old initiate died at Monontsha area on November last year.
Thakeng said inquest case has been registered for further investigation.
Lejweleputswa district acting Commissioner Brigadier Mzondi Mojafi and Captain Niniveh Landman attended the crime scene.
