Twelfth boy dies after botched circumcision
Another initiate has died in the Eastern Cape,
bringing to 12 the number of deaths since the start of
the winter initiation season, the provincial health
department announced on Friday.
"Every day we lose a life. Every day there's a death,"
said spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
He said the latest death was of a 16-year-old boy at
an unregistered, illegal initiation school in a rural
area between Port St Johns and Lusikisiki.
Officials were on their way to the school to recover
the body.
| An initiate was found dead of
starvation |
Police wanted to arrest the traditional surgeon who
ran the school. Kupelo said police and department
officials rescued 130 boys from illegal schools in the
mountainous Ntabankulu area of Pondoland on
Thursday.
They also arrested six traditional surgeons and
nurses.
Police were probing charges of murder, assault, and
running illegal schools.
An initiate was found dead of starvation in the area
earlier this week.
"Some of the (Ntabankulu) initiates have been admitted
to hospital and are being treated for malnutrition and
pneumonia, because they were hidden in the mountains
for three weeks," he said.
All but one of the 12 deaths had occurred in
Pondoland.
"Those deaths can only be attributed to the fact that
the custom is poorly managed in that part of the
province.
"It's because the custom is not theirs (the
amaMpondo): they borrowed it from other tribes.
"Because of that, elders are not allowed to go to the
mountain, because some of them have not been through
the ceremony themselves.
"As a result it's the younger generation handling the
whole thing."
He said one of the surgeons already arrested in the
area was a 24-year-old. Others had turned out to be
members of other tribes who had been employed in
Pondoland as domestic workers or cattle herders, and
who now claimed to be surgeons.
Kupelo said police would be raiding a number of
illegal initiation schools in the Pondoland area next
week. - Sapa
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