‘My son’s killers must die’

Mom livid after charred body of teen is found at an illegal initiation school

A distraught mother of an initiate whose partly charred body was found lying in an illegal initiation school wants her son’s killers also dead.

Lonia Simelane’s son was found dead two weeks ago in the bush in Woodkop near Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, with both his arms severely burnt.

“My son meant everything to me. He was my last born of five children. My heart is sore from talking about his death. I want to meet the people who killed him. I would kill them ... like David did to Goliath in the Bible. I might be a woman but I’m willing to kill for my son,” said Simelane from her home in Finetown.

Her son Karabo, 14, was a Grade 9 pupil at Finetown Secondary School. His body was found at an illegal school believed to have been operated by a man known in the area.

Karabo is the second known initiate to have died in the area this month. Samkelo Khola, 17, of Boipatong was abducted and then found dead near a substation in Lenasia on July 9. The substation operated as an initiation school where he and two other boys were tortured by their abductors.

Karabo and Samkelo died at the time when traditional circumcision operation had been suspended in Gauteng.

Karabo left his home on June 23. His family could not trace him for days until police made the gruesome discovery of his abandoned body 17 days later.

Simelane said she had reported him missing to four police stations.

“My two neighbours told me that some people were demanding ransom to release their children from the mountain. I then heard that Karabo was also among the recruited boys. I told this to Woodkop police on July 3 but they said they did not deal with initiation matters and they referred me to the Vereeniging police,” she said.

A week later she was called to Vereeniging police station where the news of her son’s death was relayed to her.

“Police failed me. Had they acted earlier my child would have been found alive,” said Simelane.

Vereeniging police spokesman Captain Fikile Funda confirmed an inquest has been opened and that 11 boys aged between 10 and 15 years old were rescued from the same school.