20 rescued as bush season starts
Illegal initiation schools bust in Flagstaff and west Pondoland
MORE than 20 Eastern Cape youths will continue their initiation at rescue centres after being removed from illegal circumcision schools.
The summer initiation season kicked off nationwide yesterday, with rescue workers on high alert.
One of the boys, mostly younger than 16, was admitted to hospital and later discharged to one of four rescue centres in the province.
“We are closely monitoring the schools and keeping an eye out for illegal schools in our communities,” said Community Development Foundation of SA executive director Nkululeko Nxesi.
The initiates were rescued from Mfundisweni location in Flagstaff, as well as the western parts of Pondoland a week before the start of the summer initiation season.
Nearly 500 initiate deaths were recorded between 2008 and 2013, and more than 500 000 hospitalised with complications associated with botched circumcisions.
The first set of support groups for parents of initiates who died and initiates who lost their penises due to botched circumcisions have been formed in parts of the Eastern Cape. Nxesi said amputees will be groomed as ambassadors to raise awareness against illegal initiation schools in the province.
Outreach and awareness programmes have been conducted with parents, community leaders and pupils at over 100 schools since the winter season. About 20 medical doctors, who have gone through the traditional custom, have been selected to work with traditional surgeons and nurses.
Nxesi said it was important that doctors came from similar ethnic groups as the initiates so as to prevent initiates from being rejected and ridiculed after circumcision. Meanwhile, parents of about 21 initiates are desperately awaiting the return of their children after they were allegedly abducted in Sharpeville, on the West Rand.
“The situation is really volatile. Our boys are in more and more danger as a result of increasing illegal initiation schools,” said Manene Tabane, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) chairman in Gauteng.
Tabane said they were working around the clock with police, government officials, parents and community leaders to ensure the safe return of the boys.
It is understood the initiates were taken to illegal initiation schools as far away as Heilbron in Free State and Fochville in North West.
Tabane added that areas in Sedibeng were at risk of illegal initiation schools with the migration of illegal surgeons who had run away from the Eastern Cape and Lesotho.
Contralesa general secretary Xolile Ndevu believed continuous programmes around awareness will help to reduce deaths and injuries.
Local government and traditional affairs spokesman Mamkeli Ngam advised parents to be “vigilant and on the lookout” with their children’s comings and goings. “If need be, fathers should take leave and stay in the bush with their children to ensure their safety. There are villages that have had no deaths since the start of the custom, and this was because parents were involved,” Ngam said.