By Anita Dangazele
The festive season in the Eastern Cape was characterised by grief instead of the much anticipated December celebrations.
Death seems to have been the tone of the 2023 festive season, with over 80 people killed on the province’s roads, 34 initiate deaths, and some of the most disturbing gender-based killings the province has ever seen.
The Eastern Cape Transport Department maintains that the quality of Eastern Cape roads is not the main cause of the majority of road accidents. Department spokesperson Unathi Binqose said head-on collisions were the most common cause of the crashes.
“The main cause of these accidents by far has been human error. Time and again we reported head-on collisions that claimed lives. I mean yesterday alone, we reported two head-on collisions and in total, nine lives were lost in those collisions. It is not often about the conditions of the road nor is it about the conditions of the vehicle, but is about you and I as road users.”
On the other hand, while many families were expecting to celebrate their sons’ homecoming from initiation school, their joy turned to grief.
A total of 34 initiates lost their lives in the 2023 summer initiation season, raising questions about the dangers of the traditional rite of passage.
The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) chairperson Kgoshi Mokoena said initiate deaths need to be thoroughly investigated to determine whether they are the result of human error.
“This is no more just an incident, it’s a disaster — a disaster that needs extraordinary measures to curb this thing because there’s no way parents will send their boys to the mountain only for them to come back as corpses,” Mokoena said.
The province has also been rocked by some of the most shocking gender-based killings perpetrated by people who claimed to love the victims.
The most shocking of all was the murder of 29-year-old Nombeko Thobingunya who was dismembered and her body parts discarded in several pit toilets around the village of Ethembeni, in Libode.
Meanwhile, two elderly women were raped and murdered in two separate incidents on Christmas night by men known to them.
A 16-year-old girl suffered the same fate in the village of Zazulwana, near Butterworth after being sent to buy airtime at a shop.
Human Rights activist Petros Majola, who has been shining a light on the spike in gender- based violence in rural Eastern Cape, said: ”It is absolutely unacceptable for women to have to continue to live in fear of men. What sin have they committed that they have to be murdered on a daily basis?”
Pictured: Motor vehicle accident in the Eastern Cape.
Image: EC Transport Department
