26/06/2001 21:04 - (SA)
Boy bleeds to death after circumcision
Dumisane Lubisi
Thohoyandou - A ten-year-old Northern Province boy bled to death on Monday after being circumcised at an initiation school, African Eye News Service reports.
Patrick Mandiza of Malavuwe village, near Thohoyandou, was rushed to Tshilidzini Hospital in Thohoyandou when he began bleeding profusely at about 15:00, said Far North police spokesperson Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, he was certified dead on arrival at the hospital," Mushavhanamadi said.
Police have launched an inquest into the boy's death.
Mushavhanamadi said police had established that the boy had been at the school since Saturday, but were not sure when he was circumcised.
Meanwhile, police at Calcutta in Bushbuckridge are searching for six men who allegedly dragged a young man to an initiation school where his scrotum was sliced with a blade on June 17.
Jerry Mbatha, 20, of Tsemamarhumbu village claimed he was mutilated as punishment for being a suspected burglar.
Ointment was rubbed onto the wound and he slept for three hours and woke up alone. He then escaped and went to Matikwane Hospital for treatment. A woman has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Beatrice Nkuna, 40, has not been asked to plead on charges of abduction and attempted murder and will appear in the Mkhuhlu Magistrates' Court again on July 16. She is out on a warning.
In a similar incident, a 22-year-old man from Kildare village, also in Bushbuckridge, was taken from his wife and child on June 16 and partially circumcised at a circumcision school.
He was able to escape the next night. No arrests have been made. - African Eye News Service
http://www.cirp.org/news/news24_06-26-01/