Initiation bill before Parliament soon

A BILL aimed at regulating customary male initiation was close to reaching Parliament for processing, Deputy Traditional Affairs Minister Oped Bapela said.

Briefing journalists on the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional affairs budget, Bapela said the bill would go a long way towards reducing the number of deaths at initiation camps around the country.

“The main fundamental intent of the law is one to empower the police and the National Prosecuting Authority to be able to arrest and prosecute those who are running illegal schools,” said Bapela.

“These (illegal initiation schools) in the main are found in urban centres… where traditional leaders are not in charge, and therefore you find people just do as they want.”

Scores of boys die every year due to dehydration, gangrene and other complications which the government attributes to “fly-by-night” operators who use the cultural practice to make a quick buck.

The Customary Initiation Bill would make provision for municipalities to regulate the operations of initiation schools.

Bapela said those wishing to open initiation schools would have to present their credentials to the municipalities and be fit to practise. Municipalities could then develop appropriate by-laws.