Safe initiation season in Ndlambe, but 21 deaths in EC

The last Ndlambe council meeting of the year on Friday December 8 began with speaker Andile Marasi encouraging public representatives to visit the more than 400 children undergoing customary initiation (ulwaluko) across the municipality.

The municipal speaker is designated as the chairperson of every municipality’s local initiation forum.

The Customary Initiation Act sets out the roles and responsibilities of national and provincial government in managing and monitoring ulwaluko practices and practitioners across SA, through the department of cooperative governance (Cogta).

Local and metro municipalities play an important role in coordinating health, safety and social services in their jurisdictions to ensure initiates’ safety in the bush and safe return home.

The oversight structures are, in cascading order, the Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committee, chaired by the Cogta MEC, the Provincial Initiation Task Team (PITT), the District Initiation Forum and local initiation forums (with seven in the Sarah Baartman District).

The shooting of an initiate in Walmer Township, Gqeberha, brought the number of initiation-related deaths in the Eastern Cape this season to 21.

Ndlambe, Makana and the Sarah Baartman District, in general, have a good record of ensuring initiates’ physical safety.

Makhi Mkha, the department of health’s designated medical officer for traditional initiation schools in the Sarah Baartman District confirmed on Tuesday that there had been no adverse events when it came to the physical safety of the initiates in Ndlambe and Makana.

“In the Sarah Baartman District there have been no deaths, no hospital admissions and no amputations,” said

Mkha, whose has dual qualification as a registered and traditional nurse [inkhankhatha]. He was speaking on Tuesday December 12.

Mkha said Amathole was the only other district municipality in the province where there had been no deaths or hospital admissions.

He said it was hard to say when the initiation season would end.

“The mgidis [initiates’ homecoming ceremonies] started last weekend. But there was a family coming to the Joza clinic today [December 12] asking for screening forms. So they will only start once that is approved.”

According to the provincial health department’s areas of operation, Makana and Ndlambe fall under the Makana subdistrict. Statistics from the subdistrict show that 1,207 boys were screened at its clinics for ulwako – 728 from the Makana municipal area and 479 from Ndlambe.

Of these, 620 boys from Makana and 424 from Ndlambe were subsequently registered.

The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs noted with deep sadness the killing of initiates at an initiation school in Ngqamakhwe in the Eastern Cape on December 5.

Their deaths are being investigated.