AN 11-year-old boy has died at an initiation school in Limpopo, the first death reported since the beginning of the initiation season on June 15.

The Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders said yesterday the boy died on Tuesday last week. The boy's death followed that of the initiation school's principal last month.

The tragedy happened at Relela village in Bolobedu, outsideTzaneen. The deputy chairman of the organisation, Hosi Eric Chauke, said authorities at the initiation school had delayed to inform them about the incident.

He said the principal of the school, identified only as Mr Mahasha, had died on June 26 and that shortly after the child's death, a decision was taken to close down the school "for fear of the safety of the other initiates".

The school had admitted 29 initiates and, as in other initiation schools, had started operating on June 15.

It is still not known what caused the death of the initiate.

"We tried to investigate the cause of the death of the initiate and could not find anything. We relied on the postmortem result, which indicated that the initiate had died of natural causes," Chauke said.

He said the school was operating under a particular chief.

"We are currently in touch with the chief in the area to make sure that the royal family takes charge of funeral costs of the dead initiate," Chauke said. He said the initiation school's principal was buried on Saturday.

Initiation schools are expected to wrap up their business this weekend to make time for the initiates' return to their respective schools.

Last year, only two deaths were recorded in the province by the closing.

- frankm@sowetan.co.za