The chairperson of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA), Kgoshi Mokoena has described the growing number of initiation deaths as “a disaster”.
While 22 persons died during initiation rites in 2022, 34 initiates died during the 2023 summer season. Against this backdrop, the government recently announced a new approach to the issue, to make it a year-round concept.
Mokoena said in a radio show today, that he was devastated.
“This is no more just an incident, it’s a disaster a disaster that needs extraordinary measures to curb this thing, because there’s no way parents will send their boys to the mountain only for them to come back being corpses. We are embarrassed about it as CONTRALESA,” Mokoena said.
He added that the scale of the problem in the Eastern Cape, specifically, is of major concern for them.
“Maybe we can say, let’s have a pilot project so the leadership in the Eastern Cape can look at other provinces and how they are running their initiation schools, maybe we can take it from there, because their method really is bringing us down,” said Mokoena.
Starting in 1990, the CONTRALESA brings together traditional authorities, like chiefs and headmen, who identify broadly with the liberation movement. It is officially non-aligned, insisting traditional rulers are above party politics.
