A total of 14 initiates have died in the Eastern Cape during the winter initiation season.
Six initiates died due to illegal circumcision, while other deaths are attributed to dehydration and septicemia. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Zolile Williams, has urged parents and communities to play an active role to save the lives of their children. “Parents continue to allow their children to be circumcised by untrained surgeons, now it’s difficult for government to do anything when parents hide the schools and also participate illegally in the process. So, I still make a clarion call to parents to say for the traditional circumcision to succeed, parents need to play their role to ensure that the passage to manhood is driven in a safe environment.
“Condolences to the bereaved families. We once more call upon our government to restore powers and functions to the institution of traditional leadership in South Africa and resource them because we believe that we can deal decisively with all these ragamuffins who continue to enrich themselves at the expense of valuable lives of our leaders of tomorrow.