The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) has confirmed 43 deaths during the 2026 winter initiation season.
By Zuko Komisa
It is a grim statistic that keeps recurring year after year: 43 young men have lost their lives during South Africa’s 2026 winter initiation season, according to official figures from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA).
The sheer scale of the tragedy has sparked widespread outrage, leaving many to wonder when these recurring fatalities will finally be treated as the national crisis they clearly are.
The tragic toll raises difficult questions about the balance between preserving sacred cultural practices and enforcing fundamental human rights.
Drive 959 recently had a conversation with Mbuyiselo Botha, founder of the South African Men’s Forum, who argues that the problem isn’t necessarily a lack of legislation.
South Africa already has laws governing initiation but rather a blatant failure to enforce them. He is calling for firm criminal accountability, asserting that traditional leaders who turn a blind eye to illegal, unsafe schools ought to face arrest and prosecution.
He also shared that there are many practical ways to solve the problem that many communities are not putting place.
“We could be doing a lot of things to stop this but we are not doing it, and one of the things that shouldn’t be happening is the caused by men who have gone through the practice who are now medical doctors, and they are know in the community, and if you get them involved you would have zero deaths happening. It is know in different communities who the best nurses, surgeons those who have gone through this practice. We have never had a massacre of this nature.” says Mbuyiselo Botha
Listen to the full conversation:
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