Initiation schools in Mpumalanga are still the sole responsibility of traditional leaders because the province has yet to enact legislation to regulate them.
The province’s House of Traditional Leaders is currently drafting a policy on schools, which will eventually be passed by the legislature as law, says house representative Inkosi Mzingeli Mthethwa.
‘We’ve consulted with the amakhosi [chiefs] since last year to give input,” he says. ‘The intention is to regulate the practice by ensuring that amakhosi are the only ones giving permission to individuals who want to run the schools.”
He says the policy, which is being studied by legal advisers, would also involve the health department.
At the moment, neither the house nor the provincial government has any control over initiation schools and Mthethwa was unable to say how many were operating.
Mpumalanga’s health representative, Dumisani Mlangeni, says they have not received any reports this year of deaths or infections.
On the other hand, Limpopo which regulates the initiation schools, has had a rough season.
Provincial health representative Phuti Seloba says that 177 initiates have been admitted to hospitals in the Bushbuckridge and Haenertsburg areas for treatment. The schools they were attending were closed down because the owners did not have government permits.
South African Police Service representative Inspector Ntobeng Phala says the owner of an illegal school in Haenertsburg had paid an admission of guilt fine of R1 000, while five owners of schools in Maboi near Bushbuckridge were released on a warning.
Seloba said there had been no deaths so far and the initiates had been discharged from hospital.
Altogether 325 schools have been registered in the Mopani, Capricorn, Sekhukhune, Waterberg, Vhembe and Bohlabela districts this year.
The Initiation Schools Regulation Act requires, among other things, that the schools not admit boys under the age of 16 and that parental consent be provided for initiates under 21.
Initiates also have to undergo a medical fitness examination and initiation schools have to be linked to a nearby hospital or clinic.
– African Eye News Service