Initiate, 16, tells of torture

In an interview with the Daily Dispatch, the initiate told of how he was beaten with sticks, kicked on his chest and burnt with smouldering plastic on his buttocks and knees at an illegal initiation school in Ngqeleni.

He was starved and only fed half-cooked dry pap with no water to drink. The only time water touched his lips was when it was poured over him after he lost consciousness.

Finally, after 10 days of hell, his mother was contacted to get him.

“I don’t know what happened, but when I woke up I was at home and do not know how I got here,” the initiate said.

“The last thing I remember was when I was made to sing aloud. I felt dizzy. But each time I collapsed, the young men poured cold water over me. It was scary and traumatic, I thought I was dying,” he said.

The story of how the 16-year-old ended up at the illegal initiation school is one many of his age can understand.

He said he came under extreme pressure from peers to “become a man” after initiates as young as 14 returned from the bush and were no longer his friends as they were now considered men.

In their eyes, he was still a boy.

“But this time some of my old friends advised it was time that I must go for it.

“They explained it was just an easy thing and a beautiful experience one would never regret. That sounded sweet and appealing.”

He finally succumbed and arrangements were made.

On his 16th birthday he ran away from home with R430 he stole from his mother and took a taxi to Mabheshe village in Ngqeleni where he bought a bottle of brandy to pay the bogus traditional surgeon.

The rest of the money was used to buy mealie meal.

He and a much older friend, 23, were circumcised and placed in a disused rondavel.

“They made us sing all day long. For two days we were not fed and later we were fed only on dry pap and denied water for eight days.

“Even the men I thought were my friends – and are those who sent me to the initiation school – also attacked me.

“When I cried, they laughed at me and said I was a coward and would not make a man of good standing.”

He was saved after local gospel singer Sipho Nkente, who was concerned the boy might die at home, arranged he be taken to hospital.

The Dispatch visited him in the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha yesterday.

The initiate moved with difficulty and had to use walking sticks.

Wounds on his buttocks, back and arms were septic.

His 45-year-old single mother, who sells fruit in Mthatha, was worried about her son.

“I did not know where he was. I only received a call on June 17 and the caller on the other side said he was circumcised and was fine.”

An initiation monitoring team, led by Chief Mnoneleli Ranuga, yesterday promised to intervene.

“We can’t sit down and fold our arms while our boys are deliberately being killed,” said Ranuga.

The mother, who is yet to open a case with the police, said doctors told her his son had suffered kidney failure and was dehydrated.

The teenager has apologised to his family, admitting he should have waited until he was old enough.

“The only thing I want is all those who abused me be arrested and put in prison before they kill other boys.”