East London– The death of initiates and injuries they suffer while in initiation school will become the thing of the past. This comes as the Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance holds a two-day summit in East London. The summit aims at bringing back the dignity to the practice after it has suffered numerous challenges that includes tragic deaths, abuse of the initiates that leads to injuries. The Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and traditional affairs (COGTA) MEC Zolile Williams took a proactive approach to address these issues.
Day one of the strategic Planning Summit was hailed as a success.
The Deputy chairperson of the National house of traditional leaders Langa Mavuso highlighted the importance of this summit “We are here today to give support to the Eastern Cape House of traditional leaders and The department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (COGTA) in shaping the strategy towards initiation, as you would know the Eastern Cape has a high number of deaths towards in initiation so we are here to strategize and support,” said Mavuso.
MEC Williams emphasized that the summit is guided by the Eastern Cape Customary Male Initiation Practice Act No 5 of 2016 and Customary Initiation Act No 2 of 2021, which provide a legal framework for addressing the challenges associated with customary initiation.
“We want to emerge from this summit with an implementable and achievable integrated monitoring and serving our communities better,” Williams stated. The session evaluated the effectiveness of intervention plans that have been implemented over the years. The persistence of both old and new challenges necessitates new strategies to minimize the tragedies affecting the customary male initiation, a crucial rite of passage for young men.
MEC Williams further highlighted that providing the necessary support and resources, ensuring the full participation of traditional leaders as custodians of the custom, involving parents, families, and the community at large, together with properly coordination of key stakeholders will guarantee the safety of the initiates.
“Our badge of honour will be the restoration of the dignity and sacredness of this age-old custom, where deaths and injuries of our children will be a thing of the past,” MEC Williams passionately added.
Departmental spokesperson Mamkeli Ngam said “Our first great outcome is the response we got from the security cluster, which states that the cluster has set aside a rapid response team that will work exclusively in following all previous initiation cases. If we remember very well, close to 900 of young man lost their lives through initiation and others were badly injured and no action was taken against that,” Ngam said.
The rapid rise in initiation-related deaths had caused a concern among communities in the Province. The establishment of a security cluster by the province motivates and gives hope to communities that lost their children, reassuring them that justice will be served.
This summit represents a significant step toward safeguarding the well-being of initiates and preserving the cultural significance of the practice. It demonstrates a united front of government and traditional leaders to address the challenges and tragedies associated with customary male initiation in the Eastern Cape.
