Controlesa sorry about initiation deaths

Traditional leaders apologised to the country on Friday for the recent spate of deaths among young men at initiation schools.

   

"We have been disturbed by the level of deaths during initiations. We want to apologise to the nation," Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA general secretary Kgoshi Setlamorago Thobejane said.

   

He told reporters in Pretoria that initiations schools were responsible for 250 young men's deaths throughout the country since 2004.

   

"We want to pass our condolences to the families who have lost children. We were supposed to have done things differently."

   

There have been at least 30 deaths of initiates in the Eastern Cape since May, 30 in Mpumalanga, and seven in Limpopo. 

   

Thobejane said the time had come for traditional leaders to go back to the drawing board and come up with ways to curb the death toll. One death was one too many.

   

"We have fallen and need everybody to help us in this journey," Thobejane said.

   

-Sapa