Following the deaths of 30 boys and young men in Mpumalanga and 30 more in the Eastern Cape this past initiation season, the Yezingane Network, SANAC’s Children’s Sector, has called on president Zuma to institute a Commission of Enquiry into the deaths of boys from traditional male circumcision.
Deaths of boys in initiation schools regularly make headlines but there has been inadequate action from authorities. Community members in affected communities with a strong circumcision culture underplay the problem, referring to deaths as “unfortunate but avoidable”. Even mothers whose children died refused to speak out, saying that it was taboo. Traditional leaders adopted the same position. The silence is deafening. The general population calls for arrests and convictions, but nothing happens.
Those responsible for the deaths walk free. A report in the Times newspaper dated July 8, 2013 stated: “Culture is being used to cloak the murder of boy children.”
Aside from the deaths, during this year’s winter initiation season more than 300 boys were badly injured from botched circumcisions. Some were admitted to hospital in critical condition; others are scarred and maimed for life. Torturous conditions in the initiation camps may also lead to mortality.
According to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, death or injury in initiates may be caused by: massive bleeding leading to hypovolemic shock, infection, dehydration from being denied safe drinking water, septic shock, hypothermia from exposure to extreme cold weather, or low blood sugar from extreme food restriction. There have also been reports of initiates being routinely beaten and assaulted, some to death. Some initiates reported being denied food and water. These claims have been corroborated by the statement from the Minister of Health.
In 2007 Irin news (irinnews.org) reported the deaths of a group of 12 initiates in the Eastern Cape, despite the arrests of more than 20 illegal traditional surgeons in the preceding month. The Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health reported that nearly 100 youths had been hospitalised, and 350 were rescued from “fly-by-night” [initiation] schools. Health department officials later spent two months driving through the rough, hilly terrain of the province, swooping on dodgy initiation schools to rescue young boys from the risk of infection, penile amputation and death. Although health authorities report and treat serious complications from botched circumcisions by traditional surgeons, a disconnect within government operations vis-a-vis initiation school fatalities and operations exists. While much effort is put into rescuing boys from illegal initiation schools and treating them, law enforcement and regulation seem to be non-existent. To date, there have been few convictions of traditional surgeons.
Victims of botched circumcisions continue to experience the following ongoing effects:
- Chronic physical pain and other medical complications on account of disfigurement and amputations: The Mail and Guardian reports that in the Eastern Cape, where statistics were available, the death toll for the five years between 2008 and 2012 was 323. During that time, a further 126 boys suffered genital amputations.
- Psychological trauma: Nightmares from their terrifying ordeals, not to mention the lifelong psychological and emotional trauma that these children will likely endure.
- Poor school attendance: Some former initiates will not go back to school on account of fear of ridicule. One boy lost his penis in the winter circumcision season of 2006. Now 23 he has managed to hide the fact from neighbours, friends and teammates. He is one of 154 young men who lost their penises because of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape in the five years up to July last year. His father says his son has since led a life of seclusion. “I pleaded with him to return to school after the amputation,” said his father at the family’s modest homestead at a village outside Mthatha, Eastern Cape. Because of extreme anxiety he dropped out of Grade 8 at the local school. The young man, an ace striker in the local soccer team, said he had stopped going to school for fear of being taunted by his peers.
The Yezingane Network is however encouraged by the position taken by the Presidency and parliamentarians who have called for the arrest and prosecution of the operators of illegal initiation schools, including legal schools operating outside guidelines. President Zuma echoed the national outrage at the unnecessary loss of lives, saying: “It cannot be acceptable that every time young men reach this crucial time in their development, their lives are culled in the most painful of ways in the care of circumcision schools.”
In a recent statement the ANC called on government to act immediately: “Authorities can no longer pay lip service to dealing with this disaster that afflicts our nation during the traditional initiation season.”
Content supplied by the Yezingane Network