MEC shocked by injured initiates’ ages

WHILE government has made it illegal for boys under the age of 18 to undergo traditional male circumcision, boys as young as 13 are still being circumcised in many areas.

The seven-month-old Traditional Male Initiation Act promulgated in November has been put to the test in Mpondoland, where cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Fikile Xasa was shocked to find many underage initiates in hospitals and initiation schools he visited this week.

Xasa and his delegation visited initiates hospitalised at St Barnabas Hospital in Ntlanza, near Libode, where he learnt that some had been assaulted with spades.

No fewer than 10 initiates admitted to the hospital were under the age of 18 – some as young as 13.

The law also bars initiates from being assaulted and ill-treated.

One group of initiates claimed to have been beaten with knobkerries, garden spades, punched and kicked by their attendants and other young men who visited the initiation schools.

One of the initiates is now following an attack at a school.

Flanked by members of both the Nyandeni and O R Tambo traditional initiation forum monitoring team, Xasa closed down an illegal initiation school at Guqa village in Ngqeleni and the 11 initiates who were unattended were taken to a rescue centre.

The traditional nurses managing the illegal circumcision school managed to evade arrest.

At least 11 traditional surgeons have already been arrested across the province since the winter initiation season started.

However, the MEC said there was some resistance by police to arresting those breaking the law.

“But I will speak to the heads of the SAPS in the province and request that those breaking the law be arrested, and we are doing the same to the head of the NPA,” said Xasa.

He said if there were still loopholes in the law, these needed to be fixed immediately.

Some of the initiates in St Barnabas told Xasa of being assaulted.

“My traditional nurses came and beat me with knobkerries and a garden spade,” a 15-year-old initiate told Xasa.

Another told the MEC that five men came to the initiation school and kicked him in his private parts.

The underage initiates claimed they did not know they were not supposed to be circumcised until the age of 18.

Meanwhile, a third initiate in an initiation school that burnt down at the weekend in Qumbu has died in hospital, taking the death toll of initiates since the winter season started to five.

Other initiates – one with more than 60% burn wounds – have been transferred to Cecilia Makiwane in Mdantsane and Mthatha Regional Hospital in Mthatha.

Xasa said no foul play was wheelchair-bound suspected. —