Traditional leaders on the Cape Flats are worried about the shortage of land for initiation rituals. A piece of land previously used in Khayelitsha, is being cleared for a new MyCity Bus Depot.
The community says the lack of space could negatively impact on cultural practices. The initiation season is underway.
The rite of passage into manhood is away from the public eye. In the Western Cape, there are mounting concerns about the decreasing availability of urban land for this practice.
Mushrooming informal settlements, clearing of trees and land grabs are also contributing factors.
Traditional leaders say government is not doing enough to preserve their culture. “It is very important that we should get support from all the communities and the government to leave the land that is in Delft vacant for our initiations, for our boys so that we can use that land. Government must also assist us to get any other land that is available so that we can have enough land for our initiations in the Western Cape,” says King Zanomthetho Rhubha Gawulana.
Initiation sites are situated in various townships across the metro. These include Khayelitsha, Philippi and Strand. City authorities, overseeing urban development, are caught in the middle.
They are engaging traditional leaders on land use for cultural purposes. “We want to get a permanent solution to this. For example, in Langa there is a designated site with some taps and toilets and other stuff, so we need to just identify the pieces of land and get around the table talk about it and sort it out as soon as possible,” says City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member Anda Ntsodo.
The city says the planned Myciti Bus Depot in Khayelitsha is meant to correct apartheid spatial planning and bring services closer to disadvantaged communities.
The Western Cape Cultural Affairs Department says it plays a supporting role in initiation forums and cannot comment on the issue.
