Delegates at Free State public hearings on initiation schools on Tuesday called for special courts to be established to deal with transgressors of initiation customs.
The call was a result of the lack of convictions by South Africa’s criminal courts, said a joint statement by the South African Human Rights Commission, the National House of Traditional Leaders and the Commission for the rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL).
”Most cases end up being struck off the roll due to unwillingness of witnesses to give evidence in public about what takes place in some initiation schools,” said a representative from the local police office.
The public hearings were set up to focus on issues around the deaths and injuries of initiates at these schools.
According to the terms of reference of the hearings, about 215 initiates have died and 118 others have lost their penises in the Eastern Cape since 2001.
In 2005 alone, 48 initiates died and 589 others were admitted to hospitals, while there were 20 penile amputees.
Traditional surgeons were often inadequately trained to perform traditional circumcision, a key part of the initiation process.
This second round of hearings was being held in Phutaditjhaba and ends on Wednesday. The hearings are taking place over 12 days, with three days each spent in Bisho, Qwaqwa, Hammanskraal and Johannesburg.
Delegates at the Free State hearings were alarmed at the amount of drug and substance abuse in some of the initiation schools. Many children apparently learned to smoke dagga and drink liquor in these schools.
”We have found problems here which have some similarities with those of the Eastern Cape and this will make our work easy when we look at possible solutions,” said Dr Mongezi Guma, chairperson of the CRL commission.
The hearings aimed to determine the causes of the high number of deaths and penile amputees in the schools. They also sought to determine whether or not legislative policy provisions relating to initiation schools were enough to address crises such as minimum-age requirements for initiates.
Other terms of reference include determining measures to be taken against traditional surgeons who do not comply with legislation; how many cases of deaths and other human rights violations associated with the schools had been reported; and whether convictions had taken place.
The role of the parents in supporting initiates and what support structures were in place for family members who lost children would also be explored. — Sapa