Youth dies after circumcision

2005-06-27 12:10

Cape Town - The number of winter circumcision season fatalities in the Eastern Cape has risen to six with the death of a 15-year-old boy in Transkei, provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said on Monday.

He said members of the community, responding to a call for help from the boy, found his body on Sunday at an illegal initiation school at Maqanyeni village in the Ngqeleni area.

The cause of death was not yet known, he said. The traditional surgeon at the school, as well as the traditional nurse, would be arrested and charged under the province's circumcision laws.

Kupelo said that in addition to the school itself being unregistered, the youth was well below the 18-year minimum age limit the law set for circumcision.

He said another five traditional surgeons were still being sought by the police in connection with illegal circumcisions in different parts of the province.

Fourteen surgeons had already been arrested, including one who allegedly circumcised 28 boys in the Libode area with one unsterilised knife.

Kupelo also said a 15-year-old had been admitted to St Barnabas Hospital in the Libode area after trying unsuccessfully to circumcise himself with a knife, and injuring the rest of his penis in the process.

Hospital surgeons would finish off the job on Tuesday.

Kupelo said the department was deeply concerned at the negligence shown by many parents whose under-age sons went off to the "bush" without asking their permission.

"Parents do not do a follow-up. They just pretend the boys are still around," he said. "They don't look for their children. They can't expect the department of health and the police to rescue all those boys."

Parents who knew their children were at initiation schools should also take on the duty of constantly monitoring what was happening there.

"They should be going there day and night," he said.

- SAPA