Initiation best for under-15s

‘Older youths difficult to handle’

Traditional healers running initiation schools in Limpopo want the practice of initiating girls and boys aged between 10 and 12 to be retained.

A group of healers who attended the public hearings probing the mushrooming of illegal initiation schools rejected the imposition of an age limit for initiation.

Traditional healers Anna Baloyi and Matome Frans Moseri made the comments before the Commission for the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) hearings yesterday.

Baloyi, who said she had been operating both male and female initiation schools for many years, told the commission that it was easy to control boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 15 than those who were 16 and older.

“It has proven to be difficult to work with children aged over 16 as they turn to take time to heal,” said Baloyi.

She said another problem was that by 13 many some are already sexually active.

Moseri appealed to government to extend the June school holidays to allow time for initiates to heal properly before they were released back to their respective homes.

Moseri said the ideal period for complete healing was six weeks. Both Baloyi and Moseri said they had never experienced deaths in their respective schools.

CRL deputy chairman, Professor David Mosoma, said initiates can only be admitted in schools from the age of 16 taking into consideration the Children’s Act.