The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) says it will halt the issuing of permits to initiation schools. It says members in all provinces will monitor the initiation schools that are already in progress, to ensure compliance to COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.
South Africa is now on an adjusted alert-level three of the coronavirus lockdown. As part of the new restrictions, only initiation schools that have already commenced with their initiation programmes are allowed to continue.
New initiates are prohibited from joining initiation schools.
Contralesa president, Chief Mathupa Mokoena, says they support government’s decision and called on all South Africans to comply with the regulations.
“We are losing so many people as traditional leadership we don’t want to rule graves we want to rule people who are alive. We are so worried that many of our beds in hospitals are occupied by people who are involved in accidents because they were intoxicated those beds were supposed to be occupied by people who are infected by this so that they can get the proper care. We are therefore calling on our people not to be careless we hope they are going to respect the call by government.
What we have decided let all members monitor the schools that are in already. We are saying to all our members no one must be issued any permits now based on what was said by government.”
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