For a soundbite in English by the committee Chairperson, Dr Zwele Mkhize, click here. For isiZulu, click here. Pictures for media are available on request.
Parliament, Friday, 13 December 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs had fruitful engagements with the Alfred Nzo District Initiation Forum and the Winnie Madikizela Mandela Local Initiation Forum. They briefed the committee on the summer initiation season, highlighting the successful awareness programme that preceded it and the challenges the forum encountered.
The Eastern Cape Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committee, the Speaker of Winnie Madikizela Mandela Local Municipality and most of the municipality’s stakeholders attended the meeting. The committee received a report on the number of initiates and initiation schools, including legal and illegal schools, and was informed about one death. There was uncertainty about whether the reported death was in the municipality’s jurisdiction or that of Ntabankulu Local Municipality, but the committee discouraged the debate.
Briefed on the challenges facing this traditional practice, the committee heard that unscrupulous people are turning the practice into a profit-making enterprise. Other challenges include underage initiation, no rescue centres, and a monitoring committee but no monitoring. The committee also heard that certain chiefs in the area are less involved when they are supposed to be at the centre of implementing the Customary Initiation Act.
In explaining the purpose of the committee’s oversight visit to the districts, the committee Chairperson, Dr Zweli Mkhize, told the initiation structures that the oversight was to assess the implementation of the Customary Initiation Act. He said the Act seeks to prevent the death of children during the initiation process and that the slogan that children “should go alive and come alive” should be taken seriously by all role-players in the initiation process.
Dr Mkhize said the committee will engage with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to address the negative implications of a previous amendment to the Act on the role of chiefs in municipalities’ affairs. He said the role and participation of chiefs, especially in initiation, cannot be lessened.
The committee, together with initiation structures, visited the Greenville Village Initiation site, where it was satisfied with compliance with the Act. However, there was concern that the initiation school’s location made it inaccessible, especially in the event of an emergency. Topology was often a problem that made initiation schools inaccessible. Both the committee and all the members of the initiation structures called on role-players to adhere to the Act, which stipulates that the location of the initiation schools should be easily accessible.
On Thursday, the committee met with the OR Tambo District Initiation Forum, which is led by the OR Tambo District Municipality’s Executive Mayor, Mr Mesuli Ngqondwana. Both districts - Alfred Nzo and OR Tambo - have been hotspots, with initiate deaths reported over the years. The committee expressed its unhappiness with the report it received from the provincial House of Traditional Leaders and asked for a consolidated report that indicates statistical information about the process, negligence and challenges encountered.
Representatives from the district municipality also raised misalignment issues between the initiation structures and traditional leaders. Past amendments to the Municipal Structures Act were cited as the source of the problem. The committee heard that the amendment had negative implications for the role of traditional leaders, and, as a result, they participated less in the initiation of boys in their communities. This is despite traditional leaders being the custodians of the tradition.
The committee and members of the initiation structures also visited the Bhala Initiation site in the Ingquza Hills Local Municipality. All nine initiates did not have doctor’s certificates, the initiation school was declared illegal, and the traditional nurse was arrested. The parents of the initiates were instructed to take their children back home. The committee will continue its oversight visit to Mhlontlo Local Municipality tomorrow.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, DR ZWELI MKHIZE.
For media inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Mava Lukani (Mr)
Cell: 081 503 1840
E-mail: mlukani@parliament.gov.za
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