December 8 (ANA) – Four more young boys have died from circumcision-related injuries at initiation schools in the Eastern Cape, bringing the number of the death toll to 10 since the initiation season started in the province three weeks ago.
Provincial department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs spokesman Mamnkeli Ngam said government needed parents and communities to help stop the initiation deaths.
“We send condolences to the bereaved families that have lost such young lives. The provincial government is appealing to parents and the rest of communities to be hands on and help authorities in ensuring that boys are healthy and safe at these schools,” Ngam said on Thursday.
“Parents should not relax and not check on their child even after sending him to a legal initiation school…being a parent dictates that they know where their child and what he is up to at all times.”
Postmortems would be conducted by the department of health to clarify the exact cause of deaths, he said.
The traditional initiation seasons in the province were marred by botched circumcisions partly due to more people opening illegal school to make a quick buck.
Over the years,the causes of deaths were mostly due to infections, especially sepsis, gangrene and dehydration as boys are told not to drink water over the initiation period that could last a month. Some have lost their genitals.
Ngam said one traditional surgeon was arrested after four parents reported him for conducting illegal circumcision in East London this week. Police were searching for three more illegal surgeons.
The province’ monitoring teams have visited more than 5000 initiates in both legal and illegal schools. Those found at illegal schools were integrated to the legal ones and given necessary medical attention, he said.
Police investigations continued.
– African News Agency (ANA)
