Daily Dispatch

Thumbs up to initiation busts

BUFFALO City’s Chief Stanley Makinana this week described the tradition of initiation as having been polluted. He is right. Those criminals who see it as an opportunity to rip off young boys and their caregivers have defiled the age-old rite of passage into adulthood.

It should be a time in which elders pass on their experience, patience and wisdom.

The youth should pass their time isolated from society in contemplation and should be learning how to act with courage and fortitude in difficult circumstances.

But, this traditional preparation for adulthood has been contaminated by alcohol, ignorance and greed of adults.

Touts go around persuading and sometimes forcing underage boys to opt into the ritual in unregistered schools, with unregistered and uncaring traditional surgeons, without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

The results have been terrible. Hundreds of youth have been mutilated or killed over the last decade.

Custom is required to change and evolve with the times, and this one has. Much of the change is neutral or positive.

Years ago boys went into the mountains or the bush for up to six months of isolation. Now they seek seclusion in the bush closer to their homes and the period is far shorter.

Traditional surgeons also undergo clinical training, there is a heavy emphasis on hygiene and youngsters are supposed to undergo a pre-circumcision health check to make sure there are no pre-existing conditions that might result in illness or death.

The Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act made many of these positive changes a legal requirement more than a decade ago.

Its stated objectives are to prevent injury or abuse and to protect life, to ensure that the tradition is not exploited for commercial gain, and to ensure the inclusion of teaching and ritual aimed at character building and preparation for adulthood.

It also requires that initiation schools are registered and inspected.

The Eastern Cape Cultural Male Initiation Bill goes further. It makes it an offence to run an unregistered initiation with fines of up to R20 000 or 12 months imprisonment, or both. It also requires that youngsters must be at least 18 years old to join an initiation school.

There is so much positive legislation in place to protect our youngsters. It is reassuring to see the authorities acting on it.

In this week’s swoop on an illegal initiation school in Amalinda, Buffalo City Metro authorities found – and probably saved the lives of – some 16 underage and dehydrated initiates. The two unregistered traditional surgeons who fled the scene are being sought.

SAPS provincial commissioner LieutenantGeneral Liziwe Ntshinga has reportedly warned that they will deal harshly with anyone found to be involved in unlawful circumcisions or harming initiates in any way.

With about 40 000 boys having already begun their summer season rite of passage, it is hoped that the authorities will continue to strictly enforce the law.

Many young lives depend on it. Those defiling this rite must be brought to book.