GAUTENG – After many weeks of search, the Duduza police finally closed down and arrested the operators of an illegal initiation school. The arrest comes after an 18-year-old boy was reported missing by his family since 13 June 2020. He was last seen in the company of a group of people that was singing for initiates. His family and other two families were told to pay up cash to ensure their safe return from the Ngoma.
Through a partnership between Social Crime Prevention, the Department of Environmental Affairs, and other local initiation chiefs, the police managed to hunt down the operators of the illegal school and rescued three boys that were kept.
On the morning of 8 July, the police put together a team to search for the boys. The operators were in clear violation of the National Disaster Management Act, which prohibited the performing of initiation practice during a state of disaster.
The boys were been kept in makeshift camps in the veld next to Dunnottar and also moved to Jameson Park where it is reported that they stole livestock from the local farmers.
The operators were able to evade by moving the initiates between the two camps and a house in Zamani where they were found. But this was not, as two of them were arrested while another two narrowly escaped and are still being hunted by the police.
The boys were taken for medical examination and will be reunited with their families.