What was once unthinkable is fast becoming one of South Africa’s most chilling social trends: a growing number of children hurting and killing one another. Once-rare cases are now emerging with unsettling frequency, slipping from community whispers into morgue reports and police dockets. In Qawukeni Village, Qonce, in the Eastern Cape, 14-year-old Liqhawe Komeni’s life ended in a way no parent imagines.
He had followed his peers to a celebration of anumgidi, the traditional homecoming of young men from initiation school, a common and culturally accepted outing for boys in his village. Hours later, his father, Bulela Ntabeni, was summoned to a scene that would haunt him forever. “I found his brain scattered on the ground.
The boy who threw the stick kept saying he didn’t mean to hit him. But the stick landed on my son, and now he is gone,” he said with his voice breaking. Because of the condition of his body, the family had to perform an urgent burial ritual known asukuqhusheka.
Read Full Article on TimesLIVE
[paywall]
Ntabeni said the household was still unable to process the brutality of his son’s final moments: “It is very difficult for us to accept that he is no more.” Liqhawe’s death is not an isolated tragedy; it is part of a rapidly growing pattern of youth-on-youth violence in South Africa. Just this month, an 11-year-old boy from Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape was shot dead, allegedly by a 14-year-old. In November 18-year-old Iminathi Mazamisa from Peddie was murdered by peers days before he was due to enter initiation school.
In Mbombela 19-year-old Lusanda Mathabela was stabbed to death by two 18-year-olds. In September 18-year-old Luyolo Wakeni was fatally stabbed during a school altercation in Humansdorp. Earlier this year a grade 12 pupil at Thomas Ntlabathi Secondary in Secunda was killed by a fellow pupil.
These cases, happening in villages, towns and school corridors, point to a growing generation of volatile boys who are navigating trauma, aggression and identity with little emotional support. Clinical psychologist and UFS lecturer Anele Siswana said Liqhawe’s death reflects a deeper national crisis. “These tragedies do not happen in isolation.
They reflect psychological, social and structural forces shaping how young boys experience conflict and masculinity,” he said. Many young boys carry unprocessed anger, humiliation or abandonment. When these emotions aren’t recognised or contained, they erupt as physical aggression
[/paywall]
