EASTERN CAPE: Another circumcision death

The New Age Online (South Africa)
June 19, 2014

Contralesa to monitor initiation schools

by Sithandiwe Velaphi
Traditional leaders and health officials in the Eastern Cape will monitor initiation schools daily in an effort to stop the deaths of initiates.

The decision, announced yesterday, followed the death of an initiate in Mqanduli a week ago.

The death has left Eastern Cape traditional leaders worried following their immense campaigns with which they pledged for zero deaths of initiates this winter.

A 16-year-old initiate died at Upper Ngqwarha village in Mqanduli.

It is not yet clear how the initiate died but a botched circumcision has not been ruled out.

In the past four days, hundreds of boys in the Eastern Cape have gone to circumcision schools in line with their culture.

Traditional leaders will launch the start of the initiation season in Mthatha on Friday.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa), which vowed for zero deaths, said the death of the Mqanduli initiate was cause for concern.

“This means our aim has been dashed already. This is worrying us,” Contralesa general secretary chief Xolile Ndevu said.

“But we are not going to fold our arms. “We will play our part in making sure that lives of our boys are saved.”
...

A total of 82 boys form the Eastern Cape died between June and December last year.

A former Eastern Cape doctor, Dingeman Rijken, who worked at Holy Cross Hospital in Flagstaff, said only the centralisation of the ritual could save lives. [...or leaving out the genital cutting...]
“The rest of their (traditional leaders’) plan is similar to those of previous years.

“It is therefore highly unlikely that this season will be death-free,” Rijken said.

EASTERN CAPE: 14 circumcision deaths

msn.com
July 6, 2015

14 dead in S. African province after botched circumcisions

Traditional circumcision ceremonies in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, where the rite-of-passage practice is common, have left 14 boys dead and 141 injured this year, local authorities said Sunday.

Many of the injured teens suffered from "dehydration, wounds, pneumonia, aseptic penis and gangrene" Sizwe Kupelo, spokesman for the health ministry in the Eastern Cape province told AFP.
"Fourteen died and 141 are in various hospitals," he said.

Nine patients are waiting for a penis transplant -- a procedure requested more and more after the first successful transplant was performed in the country last year on another botched circumcision victim.

The rite of passage into adulthood, which usually follows a bush retreat of two to four weeks, is also a show of physical endurance.

For the ceremony, the teens gamble their lives. Each year teenaged boys die or are mutilated during the initiation.

"A death is always one too many," said Mamkeli Ngam, spokesman for the cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister in Eastern Cape, the home province of Nelson Mandela.

Ngam also said that several initiation schools had already been shut down.

According to media reports, 41,000 young men of the Eastern Cape -- one of the most affected provinces in South Africa -- completed the initiation last year.

Circumcision in the country can be lucrative, bringing in around 1,500 rand (110 euros, $120) per initiation, but the boys do not benefit from the profit. They are often treated harshly and receive little to no food.

In June, South African police rescued 11 teenage boys from forced circumcision after their parents reported that they had been taken from the street to participate in the initiation.

EASTERN CAPE: Doctor who showed botched circumcisions defended, attacked

The New Age (South Africa)
January 29, 2014

'Ban traditional circumcision'

by Sithandiwe Velaphi
A world renowned medico, Dr Robert WM Frater, has come out in support of a website [NSFW] set up by a former Eastern Cape-based state doctor that has exposed irregularities on circumcision in the province.

Frater, who operates in South Africa and England, said he first observed irregularities in the custom in the late 1940s when he visited the Eastern Cape at the time that he was still a medical student. [And he's done nothing about it for more than sixty years?]

Dr Dingeman Rijken, a Dutch doctor who worked at the department of health’s Holy Cross Hospital in Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape, set up a website to expose malpractices in traditional circumcision.
Rijken did this after 43 boys died last month due to botched circumcisions.

A total of 39 boys died in June last year, bringing the number of boys who died in 2013 to 82.

Frater said: “There are complications severe enough to cause death and when Dr Dingeman Rijken documented these on the web.”

The chairperson of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, said Rijken had undermined the people of the province and their customs.

“It is clear that he would like Dr Rijken to cease his efforts to help.”

Frater is of the view that traditional circumcision should be aborted and replaced by medical circumcision. [Why replaced at all?]

“The time has come to start the process of removing traditional circumcision as part of the initiation rite,” he said.

The Film and Publication Board (FPB), which apparently called Rijken to come and explain reasons for setting up the website following a complaint from the Community Development Foundation of South Africa, said although the website was harmful to children under the age of 13, it was also educative.

“The website contains material which may be very disturbing and harmful to children [under the age of 13].

However it must be borne in mind that even though the website contains graphic images, it is a bona fide scientific publication with great educative value.

The website highlights the malice that bedevils this rich cultural practice,” the board said.
Matanzima said there was “nothing educative” about the website.

He blamed the FPB for not doing what it was supposed to do – which was to shut it down.
“Is exposing manhood an education? These are kids belonging to the community. Even if there was consent from them, this is damaging.”

“We as custodians of this custom have not authorised this doctor to do what he has done.”

“We as black people respect other people’s cultures even if there are wrongdoings.”

Earlier story

EASTERN CAPE: 30 circumcision deaths

the Mail & Guardian
December 24, 2013

Thirty circumcision deaths so far in Eastern Cape

by Andisiwe Makinana
Eastern Cape government revealed on Monday that 30 initiates died in the province since the start of the summer initiation season.

Now the provincial government is calling on the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prioritise the cases that have to do with the abuse and deaths of initiates at initiation schools.

On Monday, MECs of several departments – including those for local government, health, safety and liaison, social development, provincial police and members of Eastern Cape's house of traditional leaders – held an urgent meeting to discuss how to deal with the death of initiates in initiations schools in the province. [A commenter notes that they have been holding urgent meetings about this since 1996.]

"The emergency meeting, called to look at the deaths of the 30 initiates and come up with solutions to prevent further deaths and injuries, took both short term and long term decisions to curb deaths and injuries," reads a statement from the provincial government.

The emergency meeting called on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to move with speed in attending to the cases of 30 initiates who lost their lives during this season.

"The plan is [to have] proper investigations [into] what caused their deaths ... and those found to have acted illegally be prosecuted.

"We are disturbed by the fact that a number of initiates were beaten, physically abused and some burnt while at the initiation schools in the province," said the statement.

...

Last Thursday, Eastern Cape government announced that 104 initiates were rescued from illegal initiation school in municipalities across the province. At that time, 25 initiates were dead.

...

"Our interventions in these areas are beginning to bear positive results as we see the decreasing number of deaths during the 2013 summer season as compared with the 2013 winter season."

[This is nonsense. ~80 youths died in the 2013 winter season, but the number of deaths depends on the number circumcised and the climate, as well as many other random factors.]

SOUTH AFRICA: Traditional circumcisor shot

Retaliation?

June 18, 2013

Man shot dead at E Cape initiation school

A man has been shot dead at an initiation school near Bityi early on Tuesday morning, say Eastern Cape police.

"An unknown man entered [the school] during the night and shot and killed a 22-year-old circumcision traditional surgeon," Lieutenant Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said on Tuesday.

He said a 21-year-old man, who was also responsible for the initiates, was wounded.

"The motive is unclear," Fatyela said.

No arrests have been made and police were investigating the murder and attempted murder.

The surgeon's death came a few weeks after the spotlight fell on traditional circumcision since the death of 27 boys at initiation schools in Mpumalanga.

...

Eastern Cape statistics
Of the three provinces in which initiation is most commonly practiced, the M&G was only able to get statistics from one, the Eastern Cape.

In that province, the death toll for the five years from 2008 to 2012 was 323. During that time, a further 126 boys suffered genital amputations.

...

...

EASTERN CAPE: Hospitals swamped, 6 circumcision deaths

news24.com
July 2, 2015

Eastern Cape hospital faces crisis due to initiate influx

by Adam Wakefield
Johannesburg - St Barnabas hospital in Libode in the Eastern Cape is facing a crisis due to an influx of initiates, the Eastern Cape health department said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 36 initiates had been admitted to the hospital and it had run out of beds.

"Six ordinary medical cases could not be admitted last night [Wednesday] due to a shortage of beds as a result of initiate influx," he said.

"The provincial health department has had to intervene by moving some of the boys to Dr Malizo Mphehle Hospital to avert a crisis."

The boys were admitted due to a combination of ailments, from botched circumcisions leading to septic wounds, to dehydration and pneumonia.

Kupelo said the wounded boys had circumcisions performed on them by people who did not know how to perform them.

"Codefsa [Community Development Foundation for SA], an NGO assisting with circumcision rescue operations in the area, has agreed to erect a rescue centre behind the hospital."

Reputable traditional nurses
Chief Bokleni, a senior chief in the area, had given his permission for the land behind the hospital, which is not part of the property, to be used.

"All costs will come from Codefsa, [the] health [department] will need to support with medical kits and monitoring personnel," Kupelo said.

"Chief Bokleni will assign reputable traditional nurses for the duration of their stay, health nurses and doctors will monitor. Security guards will be assigned to secure the initiation village or rescue centre."

Other initiate admissions in the province had seen 14 boys admitted to Mthatha central hospital, seven to Dr Malizo Mpehle hospital in Tsolo, 15 to Canzibe hospital in Ngqeleni, and four boys to Holy Cross hospital in Flagstaff.

"The Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Fikile Xhasa, accompanied by senior health officials from Bhisho, is currently visiting St Barnabas Hospital and will also view the demarcated area for the rescue centre," Kupelo said.

Six people dead
On Sunday, Kupelo said a total of six people had died during the week in connection with the current initiation season.

Kupelo said five of the deaths happened in the OR Tambo district and one in the Chris Hani district. Libode is located in the OR Tambo district.

An 18-year-old boy from Ngqeleni was circumcised on June 13 and died on his way to hospital last Friday. The cause of death was still unknown, although he had presented with confusion and dyspnoea (laboured breathing). A forensic examination was underway.

A Tsolo man, 22, was circumcised on June 20 and died on Saturday. The cause of his death was still unknown.

EASTERN CAPE: Doctor blows whistle on botched circumcisions

Shooting the messenger...

Dispatch Online (South Africa)
January 11, 2014

Outrage over graphic circumcision website

by Bongani Fuzile and Zwanga Mukuthu
A WEBSITE set up by a controversial Dutch doctor showing graphic images of mutilated and infected penises of Eastern Cape initiates has caused outrage among traditional leaders in the province.

Dr Dingeman Rijken, a former employee of the Eastern Cape department of health, said he set the website up “for the world to see”.

Rijken said this was a last-ditch effort to show traditional leaders and local communities that initiation was not just a ritual, but in many cases resulted in genital mutilation that had led to the death of hundreds of young boys, while thousands have had their penises amputated or disfigured.

Rijken said he had on numerous occasions requested that initiates undergo medical circumcision but “weak” traditional leaders had shown no interest.

Instead, circumcision was being carried out by traditional surgeons who were sometimes incompetent or did not use sterilised equipment.

Speaking to the Saturday Dispatch this week and referring to traditional leaders, Rijken said the “self-proclaimed custodians of the ritual” called numerous meetings to discuss the death of initiates but there were never any solutions.

“Why do we sustain a ritual that slaughters boys in their prime or physically and mentally scars many others for life?” he asked.

“Many have lost their manhood while hundreds have suffered penile amputation. These deaths were avoidable. If the weak traditional leaders continue to do this, many innocent lives will be lost. These leaders need to wake up,” he said.

But the doctor’s website has come in for criticism from several quarters and he has been accused of exposing a sacred initiation custom to the world.

Over 200 graphic images on the website show close-ups of penises infected with gangrene and skin-loss while others show botched circumcisions. [NSFW - disturbing]

Rijken said he had permission to publish the pictures from the initiates concerned. “I took those pictures because I was given consent by those involved, including the initiates themselves,” he said.

But Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders deputy chairman Prince Zolile Burns-Ncamashe said it was “disgusting” that a foreign national could “undermine” the country’s customs. [Disgusting customs need to be undermined.]

“If I had the power I would send officials to arrest this doctor immediately,” Burns-Ncamashe said.

Nkululeko Nxesi of the Community Development Foundation of South Africa, an NGO that runs initiation rescue centres, said the website was an embarrassment to the AmaXhosa nation. [It certainly is, but not in the way they want to think.]

“This [the website] will undermine the work that is being done by traditional leaders and government and us,” Nxesi said. “He [Rijken] should respect the cultural principles and processes of this nation. This embarrassing thing he has done assumes that there is nothing being done to curb this.”

Rijken is no stranger to controversy. He worked at Flagstaff’s Holy Cross Hospital and last year released a training manual to assist in the ritual. However, it was not well received as it carried a picture of an initiate being circumcised.

Rijken said that from 1995 until now, 819 boys had lost their lives undergoing the rite, while thousands had been left mutilated.

On the website he said many of the initiates huts are built in secluded locations and centralised initiation schools were needed.

Health department spokesman, Sizwe Kupelo said the department had distanced itself from Rijken, as he was a former employee.

Kupelo said it was suspected that the pictures may have been taken at a time when Rijken was in the department’s employ. “The department will investigate and may report the doctor to the Health Professions Council [of SA] if he is found to have violated the patients’ rights by publishing the pictures,” Kupelo said.

Rijken is due to leave for Malawi, where he will start work at a local hospital, within a few weeks.
He said boys would continue to die unless medically trained personnel carried out circumcisions. [Or genital cutting stopped.]

The website – www.ulwaluko.co.za – contains graphic images.

Earlier story

EASTERN CAPE: Circumcision deaths resume: 15 this season

TimesLive (South Africa)
December 21, 2012

Eastern Cape officials to meet on circumcision deaths

by

Officials from the national department of health will meet with local leaders and officials on Friday to discuss the deaths of young boys after circumcision.

The department will meet with the Eastern Cape MEC for health Sicelo Gqobana, the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders and local government departments in Bhisho, said provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo.

This meeting follows the death of a boy in Mzimvubu this week.

He was the 15th boy to die as a result of a botched circumcision this season. [Apart from his death, how was his circumcision different from one that wasn't "botched"?]

In June, a total of 49 boys died while undergoing initiation in the mountains.

"The national department of health is expected to present a plan to the province and then there will be discussions that will seek to bring an end to the problem," Kupelo said.

EASTERN CAPE: Archbishop Tutu condemns botched circumcisons

IoL.co
January 9, 2014

End circumcision deaths - Tutu

by Siyabulela Dzanibe and Liam Joyce
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has called for urgent intervention to halt the “annual mutilation and death” of young men undergoing traditional circumcision.

Tutu said health and culture authorities needed to work together to protect traditional practices while avoiding “what some in Pondoland describe as ‘male genital mutilation’”.

“My plea is for all stakeholders - and, in particular, the House of Traditional Leaders and the Department of Health - to draw on the skills of qualified medical practitioners to enhance our traditional circumcision practices,” he said on Tuesday.

A total 38 young men died during the end-of-year initiation period in Pondoland, which ends this week.

John Carpay, who started the www.ulwaluko.co.za website to provide information about the “dark secrets” of the ritual, said the seasonal deaths and mutilations had become predictable.

The boys’ deaths ”in abominable conditions” were “totally avoidable”.

“Why do we sustain a ritual that slaughters boys in the prime of their age, and physically and mentally scars many others for life,” Carpay asked.

While the Eastern Cape Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has called for a meeting with Mpondo chiefs over the matter, its KwaZulu-Natal counterpart was celebrating a successful initiation ceremony on Tuesday.

Lenox Mabaso, spokesman for the department in KwaZulu-Natal, said that, as the country reeled from the deaths of young men who had become victims of traditional circumcisions that went wrong in Mpumalanga, KZN had managed a successful ceremony.

The spokesman for the Eastern Cape Department of Health and the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said yesterday the two bodies had received proposals from various people promising a solution to halt the deaths of initiates in Pondoland.

Sicwetsha said families were ultimately responsible for the initiation of their sons, but the House of Traditional Leaders had distributed material about the initiation preparation.

“We think this is sufficient… The province harbours no ambitions to instruct people what type of initiation they should undergo or take their children through,” he said.

Earlier story

SOUTH AFRICA: Circumcisers charged with murder, death toll 26

SABC
July 4, 2014

Circumcision death toll rises, four in court

At least 26 boys have died since the start of the winter initiation season because of botched circumcisions, the Traditional Affairs department said on Friday.

"The total number of young boys that have lost their lives since the start of the initiation season has risen to 26," said Deputy Traditional Affairs Minister Obed Bapela.

"Twenty-one initiates are from the Eastern Cape, four from Mpumalanga, and one from the Western Cape."

On Thursday, 104 boys were admitted for dehydration, septic circumcision, gangrene, and other related injuries.

...

Seven people have been arrested for operating illegal initiation schools in the Eastern Cape. "The government cannot watch as our children are dying in numbers. This must come to an end," Bapela said.

Meanwhile, four people appeared in the Libode Magistrate's Court in the Eastern Cape this week in connection with illegal circumcisions, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Friday.

Three male teenagers, aged between 16 and 17, appeared on Thursday on charges of unlawful circumcision after they circumcised another 16-year-old boy in a village near Libode, said NPA Mthatha region spokesperson Luxolo Tyali.

"The young initiate was rescued by the police on Tuesday and is currently in a serious condition at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital at Mthatha."

...

On Wednesday, 24-year-old Samkelo Mvubu appeared in the same court on two counts of murder and two counts of contravening the Health Standards Traditional Circumcision Act No 6 of 2001.

Mvubu allegedly circumcised two of the initiates who died on Monday at Luthubeni village near Libode.

...

EASTERN CAPE: 42 Circumcision deaths in three weeks

the Sowetan
July 27, 2012

42 boys perish - but silence

By Mbuyiselo Botha and Nomonde Nyembe
THE figures of young boys dying at initiation schools are shocking. The death toll, as at July 11, was 42, in just three weeks.

According to reports, this is nearly double last years' figure of 26.

South Africa is now 18 years into democracy but the shame of young boys dying in Eastern Cape initiation schools continues unabated.

Why do we, as a caring, compassionate, democratic society, look the other way? Why do we allow certain cultural practices to rob young people of their future?

We are reminded of the work of gender activist and author Dr Gary Barker, whose comments in his book Dying to be Men describes the debilitating association of notions of manhood, issues of violence and HIV - that some young people will die for in their quest to become so-called "proper" or "real" men.

What it means to be a "proper" man and the fact that it has been reduced to the practice of circumcision is detrimental not only to the young men who go through the process but to society as a whole.

A society where manhood is ascribed only to individuals who have gone to initiation school is one that does not value men as whole beings with other aspects to their humanity. However, this does not affirm the notion that you can still be a man without being subjected to inhumane treatment.

Too often, not enough attention is paid when people's rights are trampled on with impunity. What message does the silence send to these young men who are expected to go through this route without any guarantee that they will come back alive?

It is our view that any other traditional law is subjected to our supreme law, the Constitution.

There are those who would argue that constitutional protection of culture gives them carte blanche to engage in practices that are not only harmful but may, in fact, lead to death. This is not so. Cultural and religious practices are protected to the extent that they are consistent with other rights in the Constitution (sections 15(3)(b) and 31(2)).

We are concerned that there is not a universal outcry from all of us to these statistics.

We wonder if this silence is a result of us fearing to be labelled as "Eurocentric" or "sell-outs" out there to please the white master.

The Children's Act prohibits the circumcision of young men and joins a number of other provincial [A]cts that regulate male circumcision in Free State, Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

Parents themselves are under an obligation to consent to the circumcision before it occurs.

There is a need for active citizenry in if we are to stop practices that not only harm but endanger people's lives.

We must hold our government to account and using the law to do so is our constitutional mandate. Doing otherwise would be betraying those who died for us to have those freedoms.

Earlier story

EASTERN CAPE: Pay cuts if more circumcision deaths?

Pay snip threat over circumcision deaths

by Lulamile Feni
The Eastern Cape government is considering docking the salaries of traditional leaders if initiates continue to die from botched circumcisions.

Speaking at the official start of the summer circumcision season at Nyandeni Great Place, near Libode, cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa said: "I am researching how much power I have [in terms of] enforcing and implementing the idea [of docking salaries]."

Forty-three initiates died during the summer circumcision season in Eastern Cape last year, up from 25 in 2012. Since 2006, 426000 boys have undergone the traditional rite.

Of these, 5586 were hospitalised, 532 died and 233 were so mutilated that penile amputations were necessary. To date, 257 traditional circumcision practitioners have been arrested.

More than 40000 boys are expected to be ritually circumcised during the next few weeks.

Said Xasa: "The government cannot fold its hands while future leaders and innocent souls are dying.
"Although we do not want to impose ourselves as the government, we cannot wait for an invitation to intervene."

Prince Mlamli Ndamase, spokesman for Western Mpondoland's King Ndamase Ndamase, said the MEC faced litigation if he went ahead with his proposal.

Said Ndamase: "No labour law would allow him to do that. There is [no law] saying that he must attend to initiates and be responsible if they die."

King Ndamase said all traditional leaders under his jurisdiction would have to account for initiate deaths.

"Law enforcement agencies must arrest, prosecute and convict those turning the custom into criminality.

"It's a disgrace to us Ama-Mpondo that we are notorious for the high death rates of initiates."

The provincial chairman of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA, Chief Nkosinathi Jezile, said the MEC should focus on prosecuting those who carry out illegal circumcisions.

The CEO of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, East London, Mthandeki Xamlashe, speaking on behalf of health MEC Phumza Dyantyi, said the health department had spent R20-million on monitoring initiations.

Community Development Foundation for SA director Nkululeko Nxesi said the foundation would increase the number of initiate rescue centres it operated from two to five.

EASTERN CAPE: Diet a factor in circumcison deaths

ENCA (South Africa)
January 8, 2014

Diet a factor in initiation school deaths

BHISHO - More than 500 boys have died at initiation schools in the Eastern Cape since 2006.
The Provincial Health Department says mainly due to dehydration and hypotension. [low blood pressure]

It says poor diet in the days following the circumcision also played a factor.

The first seven days after a boy has been circumcised are the most crucial, intense care and caution is needed as this could mean life or death.

The elders say the initiates have to follow a strict and special diet during umaluko (initiation).

Since the start of December, 35 boys have died in initiation schools in the Eastern Cape.

Earlier story

SOUTH AFRICA: Hospitals running out of beds for botched circumcisions

SABC (South Africa)
July 1, 2013

Hospital running out of beds as botched circumcision patient's rise

The number of initiates who had to be admitted in hospital due to botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape has now increased to 227.

Earlier on Monday, Health authorities said they were treating 151 initiates. Health spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo says they are running out of beds and that the department is forced to identify special wards for the badly injured initiates.

The rise in the death toll and the number of serious injuries suffered by initiates in the Eastern Cape has become a matter of concern for the provincial health department.

Mthatha is one of the worst affected areas in the province. Kupelo says they are trying to send qualified nurses and a group of medical professionals into the rural areas to monitor the situation.

He says the majority of the initiates are suffering from septic wounds and some have lost their private parts, which is a matter of grave concern. Kupelo says all these injuries can be prevented with early medical attention.

"We are currently treating 151 boys in various hospitals and our concern is that we are running out of beds. We were forced to identify special wards for the initiates who are badly injured; some of them were certified dead on arrival, and the number of these who died unfortunately is currently sitting at 25."

Eastern Cape Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana will be visiting the hospitalised initiates on Friday.

EASTERN CAPE: 20 circumcision deaths

IOL (South Africa)
July 3, 2012

MEC concerned by circumcision deaths

Eastern Cape - The number of deaths at circumcision schools in the Eastern Cape is rising, traditional affairs MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane said on Tuesday.

"It has come to our attention that at least 20 young men died in a number of our schools within a short space of time," Qoboshiyane said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The fact that many young boys are circumcised without consent and knowledge of their parents creates a fertile ground for deaths, amputations and (the) hospitalisation of initiates."

The MEC called on men in rural communities to help single women find reliable and legitimate circumcision schools for their children.

"This is an important aspect of our life that must not be left to chancers who want to make money out of youngsters. We need to restore the dignity of traditional circumcisions, so as to build responsible and healthy young men in our province."

The circumcision death toll in the province was not provided.

In December, hospitals in Mthatha were inundated with young men injured from botched circumcisions.

The health department's spokesman Sizwe Kupelo at the time said the All Saints hospital in Engcobo had admitted 33 initiates, and had to arrange referrals for their injured friends as the wards were full.

Earlier story

SOUTH AFRICA: 43 circumcision deaths

Genital cutting claims lives of 43...

IOL
18 December 2015

Heat claims lives of three initiates

by Patsy Beangstrom
Northern Cape - Three initiates have died in the Northern Cape as a result of heat exhaustion since the start of the summer initiation season in November.

The death toll from botched circumcisions has risen to 43 nationwide.

Xhanti Teki, media liaison officer of the provincial Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs, on Thursday confirmed the three deaths of initiates in the Northern Cape due to heat exhaustion which he attributed to the soaring heat conditions.

...The department further stated on Thursday that an interdict has been sought against an illegal initiation school in Dithakong.

“The interdict was served to the respondent on December 11. The intention of championing the legal avenue is to clamp down on illegal initiation schools.”

Teki added that the Draft Northern Cape Initiation Bill, which will legally regulate the practice, was currently being processed and it was expected that it would be promulgated in 2016.

Newly appointed Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, David van Rooyen, told reporters in Pretoria earlier this week that the death toll from initiation schools nationally had risen to 43 which he added was “totally unacceptable”.

The Eastern Cape reported 30 deaths, followed by the Free State (six), Northern Cape (three), Western Cape (two), Gauteng and North West (one each).

Van Rooyen said the circumcision ritual faces challenges which include abductions, kidnappings, and the mushrooming of illegal and unregistered schools.

“We are working with various stakeholders across various sectors to ensure that our young men can undergo this rite of passage in a safe manner,” the minister said.

... Between 2005 and 2015, more than 500 initiates have died while 300 have lost their manhood, official statistics show.
...

EASTERN CAPE: Death Toll at 23

Xin Hua
December 15, 2016

Deaths from botched circumcision climb to 23 in S. Africa

CAPE TOWN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 23 people have died from botched circumcision during the summer initiation season in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.

The deaths occurred despite the "Zero Deaths" campaign launched by the government, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs said ...

In winter and summer initiation seasons of 2015, approximately 101 initiates lost their lives, most in the Eastern Cape, and in the last 10 years there has been an estimated 1,000 penile amputations.

EASTERN CAPE: Circumcision death toll; 29

SABC
Novewmber 30, 2015

E Cape on a drive to curb initiation deaths

by Yanga Funani
The campaign to curb the death toll in the coming initiation season in the Eastern Cape is shifting up a gear as the thousands of young Xhosa men will embark on the traditional rite of passage over the next few weeks.

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in partnership with the Department of Health and the House of Traditional Leaders will hand over vehicles to oversee the safety of initiates this season.

At least 29 young men lost their lives during the winter circumcision period in the province this year.
This season, partnerships have been forged between the stakeholders to address the issues directly.

The theme of the campaign is, “Back to basics: Ensuring a safe passage to manhood for our boys, we are proud of our tradition”.

The campaign also included public engagements and door-to-door awareness programmes to inform parents about the correct procedures to follow.

EASTERN CAPE: Circumcision death toll 13

Eye Witness News (South Africa)
July 1, 2014

EC initiate death toll rises

by Shamiela Fisher (ed. Gadeeja Abbas)
CAPE TOWN - At least 13 boys have died since the start of the winter initiation season, the Eastern Cape Health Department said on Tuesday.

Officials say hospitals are also overcrowded with severely ill initiates seeking medical assistance.
Early on Tuesday, an initiate in Mthatha died as a result of a botched circumcision.

The department's Sizwe Kupelo urged police and the Nationa Prosecuting Authority to bring criminal charges against the perpetrators.

We have se aside R20 million [$US 1,860,550] for the situation. We are concerned and are asking locals to help get the situation under control."

EASTERN CAPE: 9 male genital cutting deaths so far this season

The Citizen (South Africa)
December 7, 2016

Summer initiation death toll rises to nine

by Steven Tau
Chairperson for the national initiation task team, Inkosi Sipho Mahlangu, said nine deaths were recorded in the Eastern Cape.

One initiate died last week and eight this week.

“The exact causes of the deaths are still being investigated,” Mahlangu said.
...
“In the previous seasons, some initiates bled to death and died as a result of dehydration due to excessive heat.

“We have since met with all key role players in Gauteng and agreed that this year’s initiations be put on hold.
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