Initiation: 15 kids missing

2008-12-02 17:43

Johannesburg - Fifteen children are missing in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, after some had apparently gone to initiation schools without their parents' consent, said Gauteng police.

"Traditionally, some [parents] will say the children have run away to the mountain. But others will say that their children have been taken," said Captain Johannes Motsiri.

Initially 30, and not 75 as previously indicated by police, went missing over the weekend. Since then 15 had been found.

He said the children were mostly from the Orange Farm area and all were under the age of 15. The police were currently searching the mountains in the area for the remaining children with the help of 11 of the parents.

No initiators had been arrested. When police find the children "the initiators run away and leave the children behind".

"The parents come to the police station [to report their children missing] but don't open cases," he said.

- SAPA