EC House of Traditional Leaders believes summer initiation deaths unavoidable
The season, which concluded on Wednesday, saw, among others, the deaths of four young men who were shot and killed in two separate incidents.
FILE: The Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders during a sitting. Picture: Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders/Facebook
CAPE TOWN - While 34 initiates died in the Eastern Cape during the summer initiation season, the provincial House of Traditional Leaders believes the deaths couldn't have been avoided.
The season, which concluded on Wednesday, saw, among others, the deaths of four young men who were shot and killed in two separate incidents.
Reports have also emerged that most of the other deaths were likely due to medical complications from botched circumcisions, dehydration and defaulting on chronic medication.
However, House of Traditional Leaders chairperson, Nkosi Gwadiso, doesn't agree.
"Among those who have died, some of them have died of natural causes. There are those who have died out of negligence, in the sense that some, they left their treatment at home."
Gwadiso also dismissed accusations that the Eastern Cape government and police had failed to protect initiates.
"You can't know what is in the forest far away, even if you are a police officer that is there. You may not know what is in the forest until you get some information from somebody who is doing it willingly, that there's an initiation school that is hidden there in the forest and then you quickly go and try and rescue."