The Limpopo government has issued a stern warning to operators of illegal initiation schools. The province has been marred by cases of abduction and deaths of initiates in recent years.
Limpopo initiation season has kicked off last weekend and will run until the end of July.
455 applications have been processed this year, and only four have been disapproved due to late submission. 286 are male initiation schools while 183, are female.
“We will not be lenient to people who will be running illegal initiation schools. As the house, we will not rest until all perpetrators who would have been discovered to have violated all regulations have been brought to book. We will work with our law enforcement agencies to prevent the unnecessary loss of young lives, and to ensure that the rights of these young people are not violated,” says Jerry Ndou, MEC Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
No case of abduction of initiates and illegal schools have been reported thus far.
“Yesterday, we were monitoring – some schools are already open, although they are not many. We are sure that after the 22nd, there will be no school that will be running,” said Chairperson of Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders, Kgoshi Malesela Dikgale.
No deaths were reported in the province last year. The Health department is keeping tabs on the operations.
No person below the age of 12 is admitted to an initiation school.
