Mbasa Gqokoma
14 July 2015
A total of 31 initiates have died in the country
since the start of the initiation season.
Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and
Traditional Affairs Obed Bapela has requested the Eastern Cape Hawks to take
over the cases of initiates who died from assault wounds.
Ministerial Spokesperson Sifiso Ngcobo said the
Deputy Minister working together with the Hawks in the Eastern Cape, following
deaths of initiates that suffered injuries such as burns, hands cut with knives
because those were assault wounds, they had nothing to do with initiation that
the Hawks must take over the case.
Meanwhile the Eastern Cape Province reported the
most death of initiates at 26 followed by Limpopo, Mpumalanga then the North
West.
The latest death is of a 17-year-old boy who was
tortured and killed at an initiation school in the Eastern Cape yesterday.
However more than 1 000 boys have been rescued
from illegal initiation schools in the province.
Ministerial Spokesperson Sifiso Ngcobo said “Deputy
Minister wishes to emphasise that this will send a very strong signal message
that government will not tolerate the disregard of the law, and people at the
same time misusing the cultural practice by gaining money and in the same time
killing the boys under the pretence of culture”
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