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On Monday, 5 October 2020, Maserame Molefe from Orange Farm, Ext. 7, a township south of Johannesburg was attacked by a group of unknown boys who wanted to take her little brother, Pheelo to Lebolong. Lebolong is a traditional initiation school where boys are circumcised without their parents’ consent, and they also teach them about manhood.
The bad thing is that they fight when boys refuse to go to this school, by either attacking and kidnapping them at school or at home. The community tried to engage with the police to stop this stealing of boys because for others circumcision is not even their tradition.
Molefe said she saw her brother running to the house, and when she ran outside to find out what was happening, there were about six boys between the ages of 16 and 20 years that wanted to take her brother.
When Molefe confronted them, they said that Pheelo already knows their secrets and now he must go with them ‘to be a man’. When she refused the boys attacked her with a panga. Molefe continued by saying she doesn’t know what happened next because all she remembers was laying down screaming, and the next time she woke up she found herself at the clinic.
The community is tired of these kinds of initiation schools and wants them to be closed permanently, as the boys from initiation schools are dangerous to the community. Because there has been numerous cases of boys dying at illegal initiations schools, many feel that parents should take their kids to the clinics for circumcision as it is safe there.
A case of assault and attempted murder has been opened, but the suspects are still on the run.
This article was submitted on 7 October 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
