Several boys, the youngest only nine years old, have disappeared in the Sedibeng region in what parents believe is a result of coercion into illegal initiations schools that have mushroomed in the area.
Gauteng police said since the last week of November and the first week of December, 28 teenage boys ranging from the ages 15 to 18 went missing and were found in the troubled region, south of Johannesburg.
Police are now looking for four boys.
Spinaar Mofokeng, Gauteng’s Initiation Schools Monitor said the situation was deteriorating beyond their control.
“I have a lot of parents who call me about their missing teenage sons. Over the weekend, I wrote down eight names of children who are missing. That number has gone up to 20. People know that these things are not legal and that they need permits to run such a facility, but they don't care,” said Mofokeng.
Sowetan saw a log book kept by Mofokeng in which he jots down details pertaining to the children who have been reported missing. Of the eight he had written down, the youngest was nine years old.
Mofokeng has been fighting the mushrooming of illegal initiation schools in Sedibeng for over a decade.
“We had a few operations on the outskirts of Sedibeng where we rescued countless young boys who were being kept in horrible conditions. They had no food, because their parents do not know where they are and cannot send anyone to give them food, they have no clothes, and they have nowhere to sleep,” he said.
Mofokeng said the general trend was for the captors to demand between R1,200 and R1,500 from the parents of abducted children to release them after a four-week "programme".
“They will return the children close to Christmas time and demand that fee for allowing their children to be initiated. It's not a good practice,” he said.
The reason for their disappearance has been attributed to the rising number of illegal initiation schools.
This has caused frustrations to many parents who feel powerless at fighting this trend.
Sarah Mokoena, of Bophelong, whose grandson,15, went missing on November 28 after he walked out of the house as if he was going to his friends, said: "He seemed very fidgety and restless on the day (we last saw him). He was walking in and out of the house until he left for good in the evening,” said Mokoena.
She said the family could not sleep that night as they frantically searched for their son.
“He left his phone at home and we went through his messages. We found that he had been in contact with an individual who had been planning to get him into an initiation school. We don’t know where this school is and we don’t know if he is OK. Those who took him have not contacted us to tell us what is happening,” said a distressed Mokoena.
Her grandson did not go missing alone.
The grandson's friend, also aged 15, went missing on the same day. The friend's father Motsamai Malebane told Sowetan that he was livid with the people who allowed his son to join them.
“He is 15 years old, a responsible adult would know that you need the parents’ consent to do anything, especially because they may be gone for more than a month. What if he gets sick from Covid-19? The government did away with initiation schools and what they are doing is illegal,” said Malebane.
Another family from Sharpeville is also in distress after their 14-year-old son went missing on December 3. An irritated Kwena Monyane, the third boy's uncle, told Sowetan that the cultural believes being indoctrinated into their son while at an initiation school.
“They don’t even know his clan name... he (the boy) doesn’t even know his own clan name. What is he going to do when they ask him to praise-sing? Nothing. They will beat him up because he doesn’t know it,” said Monyane.
He said the authorities were doing very little in uprooting the mushrooming of illegal initiation schools in their area.
Provincial police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said they were concerned by the growing number children who are missing in the region. He said police rescued 28 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.
“Four children from the Vanderbijlpark and Bophelong region are still missing and we are working with the families to search for the boys that are still missing. Our investigations are ongoing,” said Masondo.
Sowetan was able to track down an individual by the name of Zondo, who defiantly said he will continue running the schools as this was their culture.
“Nobody will tell us what to do because this is our culture. We didn’t have anything last year because of Covid-19. Now we can't practice our culture? No,” said Zondo.
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