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Mzansi urged to respect cultural traditions

todayJuly 23, 2024 89

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The President of the Icamagu Spirituality, Professor Nokuzola Mndende, has expressed concern over how criminal elements continue to try infiltrate the initiation of young men.

She’s responding to the controversy over young boys who sometimes are taken to bogus initiation schools without their parents’ consent.

May and July are South Africa’s peak circumcision season. According to the Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ (CoGTA) Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committee (PICC), 138 boys were taken to fly-by night initiation schools between May and the 12th of last month.

 

Prof Mndende says initiation is a sacred rite of passage and taking any young person to such a process without their family’s consent robs them of the privilege to do things according to their family traditions and rituals.

She has urged South Africans to respect cultural practices, saying taking someone’s boy child to an initiation school without consent is criminal and must not be condoned.
Despite government urging people who run the winter circumcision schools to comply with the law, cases of boys taking themselves there or being forced to go, continue to pop up.

 

Recently a social media user caused quite a stir on X after sharing how his son and a friend, who they thought were missing, turned out to have gone to an initiation school without their consent.

Professor Mndende says the only time a boy was ever sent to these schools by force was when he was deemed to be troublesome.
However, even in those cases, the family would be notified.

Written by: Nokwazi Qumbisa

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