The government will now screen initiation school operators for criminal records and discourage the use of alcohol in the mountain, while imposing stiffer sentences on illegal operators.
Early last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the long-awaited Customary Initiation Bill into the Customary Initiation Act (CIT) which was gazetted on Friday. It is hoped that will tighten screws and bring order in the troubled rite of passage, which has seen many initiates lose their lives because of botched circumcisions.
According to co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta), 253 initiates have died since 2016, with 179 perishing in the Eastern Cape. At least 557 died between 2006 and 2014 with only 260 arrests, while 214 initiates had to be amputated because of botched circumcisions.
The bill was first tabled by Cogta deputy minister Obed Bapela before the cabinet committee in August 2015. However, it faced numerous delays over the years.
The 26-page document imposes strict rules to guide initiation school operators, parents, traditional leaders and the state. The Act makes illegal for a person with a criminal record related to child abuse, violence and substance abuse to care for initiates.
It also bans the use of alcohol in the initiation school except for a ritual practice. Initiation schools operating outside school holidays are deemed illegal. Abductions of boys for circumcision are illegal and the decision to undergo the rite only rests with the child.
“This Act’s intentions are very good because it is to assist the country to mitigate the deaths of initiates. However, we feel that it is too cumbersome in many things and I feel that it will be difficult for the government to regulate what is in the Act. While it is important to regulate the practice, somehow the Act is over-regulating and taking a lot of powers away from the custodians of the practice. I feel that the government should have considered a provincial approach because not all initiation practices are the same,” said Men and Boys Foundation executive director Nkululeko Nxesi.
There has been a spike in the abduction of boys in certain areas such as Sedibeng, south of Johannesburg, where greedy young men would lure boys into initiation schools and then solicit ransom from their parents.
The Act also says that initiation school principals, who are expected to be registered with local authorities, should seek permission to register their schools three months before the start of the initiation season. The Provincial Initiation Co-ordination Committee, which is expected to be established within three months of the Act becoming active, to list all registered and deregistered schools in local newspapers.
The committee will also monitor schools, and deaths of initiates should be reported to the police within a day, while abuse of initiates should be investigated and recommendations made. The National Initiation Oversight Committee will monitor the implementation of the Act and advise the committee.
The committee will also limit the number of schools in a district, and this includes the number of initiates in a school. Particulars of initiates and their medical certificates would be kept by school principals. The committee will also be given a list of teaching that initiates will be subjected to while at the mountain.
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