Limpopo aims for zero initiate deaths
THE winter initiation season in Limpopo officially came to an end this past weekend.
Though the majority of schools concluded their business on July 16 to allow initiates to return to school on July 18, at least seven schools requested a week’s extension to wrap up their business properly.
Chairman of the provincial House of Traditional Leaders, Kgoshi Malesela Dikgale, said the schools where completion was delayed were situated in the Schoonoord area in Sekhukhune, GaPhaahla near Jane Furse and Kgoshi TA Kgoete’s area near Graskop.
He said the schools were initially scheduled to close on July 17 but had to extend their operations because of delays in commencement, Dikgale said.
Two initiates died in the province during the winter initiation season, in which 325 schools had been permitted to operate.
“We regret the loss of lives of initiates in the province and will do everything in our power to ensure that no life is lost in the coming initiation season,” said Dikgale.
He said they had identified shortfalls which resulted in difficulties in monitoring the schools.
“It would be best for us to reduce the number of permits to run initiation schools in the coming season because the more the initiates are, the greater the challenges,” he said.
He said they would consider issuing permits on a biennial or three-year basis to each individual chief.
“By doing that we believe it will be easier for us to monitor and control all the schools in a calendar year,” said Dikgale, adding that they appreciated the hard work of schools that had concluded their operations without any deaths.
“It is now back to the drawing board for us and we are confident that we will win this battle and ensure no deaths occur in our initiation schools come next season. ”– Frank Maponya