Khadija Magardie
The government is planning to use colonial- era legislation to impose a R5E000 fine or maximum five-year jail sentence on traditional surgeons who perform botched circumcisions.
The proposals are contained in a draft proclamation, drawn up under the 1927 Black Administration Act, which is currently being circulated among health authorities, practitioners and traditional leaders in the Eastern Cape.
The proclamation, which has spaces for the signatures of President Thabo Mbeki and his minister of health, was drawn up in January in an effort to regulate circumcisions in the province.
Every year, hundreds of initiates from circumcision schools end up in Eastern Cape hospitals with a range of injuries and infections such as tetanus, as a result of circumcisions that have gone awry. The office of Premier Makhenkesi Stofile has long expressed concern over the high rate of “circumcisions gone wrong” because of poor hygiene and lack of primary health care training by traditional surgeons. At the end of last year, 10 boys died from injuries sustained during circumcisions. Stofile is understood to have been instrumental in drafting the new circumcision regulations.
The new law suggests stiff penalties for traditional doctors who do not follow its directives. According to Henderson Ndwebe, a provincial co-ordinator of traditional circumcision, the proclamation will be tabled in Parliament in March. Ndwebe confirmed that the draft of the proclamation has been given to Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Mbeki for consideration.
The Black Administration Act, which formed part of the “Bantu Administration” machine of previous governments, was previously used, among other things, to regulate circumcision practices in specified areas of the former Transvaal.
Among other things, the draft proclamation stipulates that no circumcision may be performed without the written permission of a medical officer, who has the right to impose certain conditions regarding the nature of the operation.
The person requesting permission will have one month to submit compliance with the conditions in the form of a sample of material to be used for the operation, and for the treatment of initiates.
Furthermore, the traditional surgeon performing the procedure “must be known to the parents of the male person, and must use instruments approved by his parents or in the case of an orphan, by his family, guardian or relatives”.
As for the penalties, the proclamation says: “Any person who contravenes the provision of [the conditions] or who fails to comply with any condition imposed by the medical officer … shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding R5E000, to imprisonment of a period not exceeding five years or to imprisonment for a period of three years without the option of a fine.”
Doctors in the Eastern Cape have struggled to change the practices of traditional surgeons who remain reluctant to adopt modern surgical techniques.
The provincial Department of Health recently unveiled plans to introduce a Malaysian device, the Tara Klamp, which helps to prevent infection after circumcision.
Some powerful traditional leaders have agreed to give the Tara Klamp a try.