Two Deaths, One Warning: Illegal Initiation Schools Continue to Claim Young Lives
The deaths of two young initiates within days of the start of the North West's 2026 winter initiation season have once again exposed the deadly risks posed by illegal initiation schools, raising urgent questions about why unregulated facilities continue to operate despite years of warnings, legislation and intervention campaigns.
While one of the fatalities occurred at a legally registered initiation school in Bodibe Village in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, authorities say the second death at an illegal initiation school in Khuma Township in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District highlights the persistent and growing danger posed by unregistered initiation operations that continue to place vulnerable young people at risk.
The tragic incidents have cast a shadow over the province's winter initiation programme and renewed calls for communities, parents, and traditional leaders to play a more active role in identifying and shutting down illegal schools before more lives are lost.
North West MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Gaoage Oageng Molapisi, described the deaths as heartbreaking and extended condolences to the affected families. He stressed that while initiation remains a respected and important cultural practice, it should never become a death sentence for young initiates.
"The loss of even one initiate is one too many," Molapisi said, warning that illegal initiation schools remain the greatest threat to the safety and well-being of initiates because they operate outside established legal, cultural, and health regulations.
The dangers associated with illegal initiation schools were starkly illustrated following the death in Khuma Township, where authorities moved swiftly to shut down the unregistered facility. The Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committee rescued 41 initiates from the school and transported them to a nearby health facility for medical assessment and treatment. All have since been discharged, with many reunited with their families.
For years, authorities across South Africa have repeatedly identified illegal initiation schools as a leading cause of deaths, injuries, dehydration, assault, and permanent physical complications suffered during initiation seasons. These unregulated schools often operate without proper oversight, qualified traditional surgeons, adequate healthcare support, or adherence to cultural protocols and legislative requirements.
Despite ongoing awareness campaigns and stricter legislation under the Customary Initiation Act, illegal operators continue to establish schools, often exploiting families and communities while placing young initiates in dangerous and sometimes fatal conditions.
Provincial authorities say inspections and monitoring efforts have been intensified across the North West, with government departments, traditional leaders, healthcare practitioners and law enforcement agencies working together to ensure that registered initiation schools comply with safety standards and legal requirements.
Molapisi appealed to communities to remain vigilant and report any suspected illegal initiation schools immediately, stressing that preventing further deaths requires collective action from families, traditional structures and residents.
Meanwhile, the South African Police Service has opened a criminal case relating to the alleged contravention of the Customary Initiation Act. It has launched investigations into both deaths as authorities seek to prevent further tragedy during the remainder of the winter initiation season.
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The South African Police Service (SAPS) in Brits has launched an investigation into a case of attempted murder following the shooting of Madibeng Municipal Manager (MM) Quiet Kgatlha.
Kgatlha escaped an apparent assassination attempt after his car was shot at multiple times on Wednesday while travelling on the Zilkaatsnek Road towards Hartbeespoort Dam in the evening.
“It is alleged that a charcoal-coloured VW Polo TSI with Gauteng registration plates overtook his vehicle and two unidentified male occupants allegedly opened fire on the vehicle, discharging multiple rounds before fleeing the scene,” said Colonel Adele Myburgh.
Authorities said even though he sustained two gunshot wounds, he managed to control the car and drive to safety.
“The victim sustained two gunshot wounds, one to his leg and another to his arm. Despite his injuries, he managed to maintain control of his vehicle before coming to a stop near a petrol service station at Zilkaatsnek.”
Myburgh added that emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and, despite the sheer volume of gunfire unleashed on him, Kgatlha miraculously survived,d and he was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment, where he is still admitted in a stable condition.
The authorities said the motive for the attack remains unknown and forms part of the ongoing investigation.
Kgatla was suspended last year for alleged financial misconduct in a housing contract; however, the High Court later overturned his suspension as it had expired before any action was taken and he was reinstated.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has cautioned eager supporters to temper their expectations regarding Relebohile Mofokeng’s European move.
The national mentor warned that the 20-year-old winger faces a gruelling physical adaptation period upon joining Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
Broos emphasised that the Belgian Pro League demands immense power and intensity that the young star does not yet possess.
He expects the club to focus heavily on building the youngster's fitness during his first half-year abroad.
“I also think that you do not have to expect that from the first day he will play because Rele has to be stronger. It is a very tough competition in Belgium. So I think the first five or six months they will put him in fitness to get a little bit stronger,” Broos explained.
Despite the reality check, the experienced coach remains entirely supportive of the transfer to his home country.
He believes this step is exactly how South Africa’s brightest talents must organise their progression into elite football.
“I think it is a good thing for him. I think he will progress,” Broos said.
The endorsement follows confirmation from Orlando Pirates that a transfer agreement has been reached with the Belgian outfit.
The move remains subject to the finalisation of personal terms and a successful medical examination.
Meanwhile, the Soweto giants revealed that the deal was intentionally kept quiet until after the FIFA World Cup to protect the player's focus.
“An agreement in principle between Orlando Pirates and Union Saint-Gilloise was in fact reached before the start of the FIFA World Cup.
“Both parties made the joint decision to hold off on any public announcement until after the tournament, wanting Mofokeng to focus fully on the World Cup with Bafana Bafana without the distraction of transfer talk, and to allow the national team’s historic run to take centre stage,” the club’s statement read.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has cautioned eager supporters to temper their expectations regarding Relebohile Mofokeng’s European move.
The national mentor warned that the 20-year-old winger faces a gruelling physical adaptation period upon joining Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
Broos emphasised that the Belgian Pro League demands immense power and intensity that the young star does not yet possess.
He expects the club to focus heavily on building the youngster's fitness during his first half-year abroad.
“I also think that you do not have to expect that from the first day he will play because Rele has to be stronger. It is a very tough competition in Belgium. So I think the first five or six months they will put him in fitness to get a little bit stronger,” Broos explained.
Despite the reality check, the experienced coach remains entirely supportive of the transfer to his home country.
He believes this step is exactly how South Africa’s brightest talents must organise their progression into elite football.
“I think it is a good thing for him. I think he will progress,” Broos said.
The endorsement follows confirmation from Orlando Pirates that a transfer agreement has been reached with the Belgian outfit.
The move remains subject to the finalisation of personal terms and a successful medical examination.
Meanwhile, the Soweto giants revealed that the deal was intentionally kept quiet until after the FIFA World Cup to protect the player's focus.
“An agreement in principle between Orlando Pirates and Union Saint-Gilloise was in fact reached before the start of the FIFA World Cup.
“Both parties made the joint decision to hold off on any public announcement until after the tournament, wanting Mofokeng to focus fully on the World Cup with Bafana Bafana without the distraction of transfer talk, and to allow the national team’s historic run to take centre stage,” the club’s statement read.
One of history's great mysteries that scientists are yet to research is the relationship between an empty fridge and ideological flexibility. Marx wrote about class. Fanon wrote about decolonisation. Biko wrote about psychological liberation. But none of them adequately prepared us for the political migration that occurs when the butter disappears and the electricity bill remains unpaid.
Andile Mngxitama deserves his own chapter in political science. There was a time when Mngxitama spoke as though Steve Biko had left him (alone) the spare key to Black Consciousness.
His every sentence carried the cadence of liberation, every paragraph smelled of Azanian possibility, and every critic was dismissed as suffering from terminal colonial consciousness. If you listened carefully enough, you could almost believe Biko had appointed a deputy before leaving this world. Then something extraordinarily horrible happened. The refrigerator began making political decisions.
When Julius Malema led the ANC Youth League, Mngxitama templated him a betrayer of the revolution who was merely holding a toy gun. Then, as if guided by an invisible GPS calibrated to the nearest source of survival, his destination suddenly became the EFF. It would seem some bridges are not burned, they merely require a catering budget.
Then came Jacob Zuma.
There was a period when Zuma represented everything wrong with the post-apartheid political establishment. Mngxitama would shout his lungs out from Malema’s spaza shop in parliament demanding Zuma to go and his criticism of Zuma flowed freely. But then the vocabulary changed, the tone changed too. Even the thieving and corrupt Indian Gupta family, in whose pockets Zuma dwelled, became tall revolutionary heroes. Black consciousness appeared to undergo a miraculous software update. Once again the fridge had entered the conversation and black consciousness principles reached an expiry date.
Now comes another fascinating chapter.
The man who once preached uncompromising Black unity, now supports the “march and march” advance merely because his breadwinner from Nkandla supports it. Vice Biko increasingly finds himself echoing positions that would have drawn fierce criticism from his earlier Black Consciousness self. The Andile of yesterday would probably have written blistering articles condemning the Andile of today as surrendering to reactionary politics.
The Andile of today would undoubtedly reply that the Andile of yesterday lacked revolutionary maturity. It is difficult to determine which Andile would win the debate, although both would insist they represent the authentic tradition of Black Consciousness.
This is not unique to Mngxitama. It has become a recurring disease in our politics.
The loudest guardians of principle often become the fastest auctioneers of principle once survival demands a new vocabulary. Suddenly ideology becomes strategy and contradiction becomes tactical repositioning. Language is endlessly inventive when their livelihoods are involved.
The greatest tragedy is not that Mngxitama always changes his mind. Human beings evolve. Circumstances change. Evidence changes. Honest reflection is a virtue. The tragedy is that each time he pretends that every u-turn was always a straight line.
One year he is quoting Steve Biko to denounce everyone else. The next year he is explaining why his latest alliance with same people is the inevitable culmination of Biko's unfinished project. Somehow Biko always ends up endorsing whichever organisation currently provides him the microphone. It is almost miraculous.
Science teaches us that tadpoles grow into frogs. That is evolution. But science can never successfully explain how a fully grown frog can wake up one morning and become a tadpole. Yet Mngxitama’s politics specialises in precisely this miracle. He claims ideological adulthood today and suddenly returns to the political nursery when circumstances require a fresh beginning. They call it reinvention. Perhaps we should stop asking him whether he has principles. The better question is whether those principles can survive grocery shopping.
History suggests that when the cupboard is full, conviction speaks loudly. But when the cupboard is empty, the same conviction suddenly discovers coalition politics. And somewhere, Steve Biko must surely be wondering why his name is forever being expropriated by someone who return it only after he has secured the next political meal.
On thing is certain though, the refrigerator and political consciousness are mutually reinforcing in Mngxitama’s world.
Tshediso Mangope moonlights as a social and political commentator in his spare time…
*The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of this publication (Journal News).
