Boy tries to circumcise toddler
2007-10-22 10:48
Cape Town - A three-year-old boy from Philippi outside Cape Town had to be taken to KTC Hospital last week after his four-year-old friend tried to circumcise him.
The three-year-old's mother, Xolelwa Ndabayipheli, 28, blames the popular SABC 1 television drama, Umthunzi Wentaba, which dramatises the experience of Xhosa initiates, for what happened to her little boy.
"These kids watched the drama show on television and copied what they saw. I was shocked when I saw my little boy with blood on his pants and asked what happened. He was crying and reluctant to tell me the truth until I called his father. He told us that his friend wanted to make him a man. I rushed him to hospital."
Ndabayipheli said although there was some injury to the boy's penis, doctors said it was not too serious and it would heal.
It is believed that the pair were playing with four other children and pretending to be at initiation school when the four-year-old, who was the eldest in the group, pretended to be an ingcibi and demanded the three-year-old take his pants off so he could be circumcised with a sharp object.
Luckily, the pain and blood proved too much for the three-year-old to handle and he ran home before too much damage was done.
The other children also ran off.
The four-year-old's parents said they apologised to Ndabayipheli and they remained friends.
Umthunzi Wentaba was shown in March this year, but was withdrawn after protests by the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa).
But the show was again flighted in September.