Coloured celebrate with Wayde PAGE 15
Youths initiated into a life of crime
THE wall that Thabang Moroka* stands next to is full of graffiti – swear words, vulgar expressions and rude drawings. It bears testimony to the gang culture that has corrupted initiation schools and taken hold of young people in Cairo, Sebokeng, and the surrounding areas.
Nineteen- year- ol d Moroka speaks with a cockiness, proclaiming he is a member of the Boys Never Respect (BNR) gang. But, at only 19, he’s also the owner and teacher of an initiation school. He formed the school in December last year with 22 initiates.
But the boys he took in never emerged as men – they emerged as gang members.
Moroka makes no apology for going against the whole ethos of the initiation traditions and the rite of passage to manhood.
“These things were happening even before I was born. I cannot stop it,” he says of the distortion between initiation schools and gangs.
He says it is necessary to belong to guarantee safety.
“Every initiation school in this area is affiliated to a gang; to stand in the middle means you’re vulnerable.” And Moroka doesn’t mince his words about the violence that gangs use.
“Anything that can cause maximum harm is preferable. Mostly we use okapis (knives), pangas and axes.” They also steal from people and break into houses, he admits.
There are other gangs like his – Delta Force, Lost, Wrong Turn and Hustlers among them, all contesting power in the Vaal area.
“All these gangs are affiliated to their own initiation school,” adds Moroka. These gangs fight over territory and gang members physically harm each other for being in the “wrong” territories.
Seventeen- year- ol d Tsietsi Mokoena*, a member of BNR, is one such victim. His school is in the stronghold belonging to the Wrong Turn gang. Now, as a BNR member, he faces danger just going to school. He hasn’t gone to school for three months.
Jabu Sithole*, 22, from Orange Farm, is a member of the Wrong Turn gang. He also says he operates an initiation school, which he started in 2013.
He quit school last year. He says police were on his case - police suspect him of being involved in house burglaries - and he could only find protection in his gang.
He says being the leader of Wrong Turn gang earns him respect: “People know better than to mess with us, during the day we are cool guys, but in the night if you take a wrong turn you’re in trouble.”
These initiation school gangs take their territory control seriously and fights spread from townships to the mountains during initiation season.
Sithole says two of his gang members suffered serious injuries in June this year when they were attacked by a rival initiation school at their initiation hut.
“They arrived with knives and pangas to settle old scores, but they only managed to hurt two guys as we fended them off because we were also armed,” he says.
Schools like Moroka’s and Sithole’s are illegal but sometimes even parents can’t stop their sons from going to the schools.
Titus Lebati, a parent of a 17-year-old boy from Orange Farm, has called the gangs masquerading as initiation schools a “mockery”.
Lebati’s son pestered him to join a local school in December last year, despite initiation not being part of the family’s culture. He had also demanded to know more about the leaders of the initiation school and was shocked to find they were run not by elders but by young men.
His son went against his wishes and joined the school, but Lebati has denounced the schools. He also called them money-making schemes.
Elliot Mohludi, treasurer of Sedibeng Initiation Traditional Surgeon Committee, says illegal schools affiliated to gangs are a big problem in Sebokeng. This committee was set up by the Sedibeng District Municipality to close down illegal initiation schools.
Things they check include the age of the person running the school, the right permits to operate, and that the boys at the school have been declared healthy and fit by a clinic to undergo initiation.
This June they closed down 11 schools operated by “young boys”. He says the rise of the gangs is because young men using violence have gained power in the community.
“Those of us who know our tradition are reduced to mere spectators as these boys unashamedly run the show.”
He adds that conditions at these so-called schools are deplorable.
“We always find uninhabitable conditions; there will be no food supply and water. This goes against our tradition. It’s criminality and a money-making scheme,” Mohludi says.
Closing down schools can also be a risky business, Mohludi says. In December last year, they encountered members of Wrong Turn, who threatened their lives.
Sokhulume Traditional Council and chairman of the Gauteng Initiation Task Team, Prince George Mahlangu, says the Sebokeng area is rife with illegal schools.
“We cannot have a situation where young people run initiation schools; we have consistently said a person must be at least 40 years of age to be given a permit to operate an initiation school,” Mahlangu says.
He says a major challenge is that many illegal schools are “moving targets” because they use various secret locations.
He adds: “The problem is that gangs manifest because people have commercialised our traditions.”
Lieutenant- Colonel Tsekiso Mofokeng, Gauteng police spokesman, says while they are investigating several cases of housebreaking, robbery and theft in the Vaal area, they have no conclusive evidence of any linkages between gang members and initiation schools.
Meanwhile, Mokoena says he realises that what he’s doing does cause harm. He says he battles with regret for the pain he and his BNR gang members cause people by robbing them.
“This coming summer initiation school season will be my last operating my school,” he says. “I will have to look at doing something different next year.”
* Not his real name