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The Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has described the summer initiation season in the province as disastrous.
The number of initiation deaths recorded in the province currently stands at 17, after two men, aged 17 and 20, died in the Chris Hani district on Thursday.
The Department's Mamnkeli Ngam said both initiates were suspected to have been dehydrated, but the postmortem results would determine the exact cause of death.
He said the department had called for a thorough police investigation into these deaths.
