Underage pupil dies from illegal initiation

 Traditional leaders of SA in the Eastern Cape have said they are disappointed to know that before the un-ban of the initiation, one life of an initiate has been lost. Bathandwa Funda, the 15-year-old boy from Gxulu village died Saturday night from the illegal initiation. He was part of a group of 10 initiates who had gone for the traditional process at an illegal initiate school (Ibhoma) eight of them ran away later ran away.

His parents rescued his cousin when the school was busted by the Nyandeni initiation forum while the rest ran away. The family is in a somber mood preparing for the funeral and said they will only speak with the police. It has been stated they are in the process of looking for the pupils in charge of the illegal school.  Gwadiso chairman of the forum also said the reason why the boys fled was because they find shame in being discovered, and are in the process of looking for more boys discovered at another illegal school. Some parents have said they were not aware they children were there.

By Everngelista Muza