Owner of girls' initiation school grilled over origin of six-week separation practice

The practice of taking young girls away from home for six weeks in preparation for womanhood has left the the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Rights of Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) puzzled.

Aleta Khumalo runs a female initiation school. She also conducts virginity testing.

She was summoned to appear before the CRL Commission to explain how her school operates.

She told the commission she runs the school in Sebokeng‚ where she prepares girls from the age of 17 for womanhood.

She said the girls spend six weeks getting lessons on how to conduct themselves as women and are given muthi to protect them against evil spirits.

• Gauteng MEC comes under fire for failing to enforce Children's Act to protect initiatesThe Social Development department has come under fire for failing to enforce the Children’s Act to alleviate the scourge of assaults‚ abuse and deaths of initiates around the country.

“We have been operating since 2005. We teach the girls about our custom. They are also prepared for womanhood.

“Initially‚ we got permission from the police to run the school and keep the girls. We later approached the municipality for permission. The MMC gave us the go-ahead because we are doing a good job‚” she said.

Khumalo could not tell the commission which tribe the tradition she was following in initiating the girls belongs to.

She initially told the commission that she was following a Zulu tradition‚ but retracted when the commission’s chairperson Thoko-Mkhwanazi-Xaluva told her that according to the Zulu tradition‚ girls did not spend six weeks away from home.

“It’s a tradition from the Free State where I come from‚” she said.

Her school is one of many the commission has closed down after reports of mushrooming illegal initiation schools in Gauteng.

- TMG Digital