486
die as greedy traditional surgeons run
initiate schools 'like spaza shops'.
(South Africa) June 24, 2014.
[A spaza shop is an informal convenience shop business in
South Africa, usually run from home. They also serve the purpose of
supplementing household incomes of the owners, selling everyday small household
items.]
Close
to 490 boys have died in initiation schools in three provinces in the past six
years and a further 455,628 were hospitalised because of circumcision-related
complications, an investigation has revealed.
These
findings are contained in a report, released by the Commission for the
Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic
Communities in Joburg today.
The
report, titled Public Hearings on Initiation Schools in SA shows that boys as
young as 12 died of dehydration, septicaemia,
gangrene, kidney failure and assault during initiation.
The
investigation focused on three provinces – the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and
Limpopo – where traditional circumcision is an important cultural practice.
The
Eastern Cape had the highest number of deaths between 2008 and 2013 – at 401.
Mpumalanga followed, with 67 deaths and Limpopo recorded 18 deaths.
Many
of the deaths recorded in the Eastern Cape happened in 2009 (91) and last year,
when 83 boys died. Mpumalanga also saw a spike during the same years. In 2009,
the province recorded 15 deaths and last year the figure shot up to 42.
Commission
chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said the probe revealed a number of factors
that led to the increase in the number of initiate deaths, but the biggest was
the commercialisation of the practice by bogus surgeons.
“Many
of the illegal [traditional] surgeons are not trained and have no idea what
they are doing,” she said.
“All
they care about is money. To them, the practice is like running a spaza shop.
They mushroom during the circumcision seasons, make money and go underground
after that.”
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