# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has rejected the Department of Traditional Affairs’ targets addressing harmful practices associated with illegal initiation schools. The department plans to reduce initiation deaths from 63 to 13 and illegal schools from 429 to 229 by 2029. This will be done through increased oversight and regulatory reform. Committee chairperson Zweli Mkhize says the targets for safer initiation practices are inconsistent with the government’s zero-tolerance approach to initiation casualties. He adds that the department must re-examine these targets immediately.
Department of Traditional Affairs requested to review targets on initiation deaths