City boss evades arrest over initiation hearings
THE City of Joburg manager has dodged a criminal case being opened against him for failing to appear before the commission that is investigating the deaths of initiates.
The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural , Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) had already announced that it would open a criminal case against Ndivhoniswa Lukhwareni yesterday for violating CRL’s Section 41 after he could not make it to the hearings.
He instead sent his subordinate Peter Manganye to represent him and answer on what the council was doing to deal with deaths of initiates and curbing illegal schools.
CRL chairwoman Thoko MkhwanaziXaluva had summoned Lukhwareni on February 15. The summons, which Sowetan had seen, states clearly that “the summons is not transferable”.
Violation of this according to CRL’s Section 41 by not attending hearings, disrupting of proceedings and threatening of CRL’s members constitutes an offence and penalty with a punishment of a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or both.
Manganye explained to the chairwoman that he was only instructed through an e-mail on Tuesday that he must make the presentation on behalf of Lukhwareni to the commission. The chairwoman and other commissioners privately deliberated on the matter for 10 minutes before they took a decision to open charges against the municipal manager. Just over an hour after the decision Lukhwareni made a surprise appearance before the commission claiming that he had a budget meeting to attend to earlier. He was advised to immediately suspend traditional initiation operations in the city until a by-law had been developed. Meanwhile, Gauteng MEC for social development Nandi MayathulaKhoza was grilled by the commissioners yesterday after her department shifted blame and its responsibilities in the traditional initiation practice to other organs of state. The MEC and her representatives said they were not directly involved with the practice of traditional initiation but only took part when rescued initiates needed psychological counselling or to be taken to a place of safety. The MEC asked to be allowed to go back to cabinet to review the institutional arrangement.