A BOY died and 24 others were hospitalised in the Eastern Cape after circumcisions performed on them as part of a rite of passage went wrong. Police said the boys, all Xhosas aged between 14 and 18, are in a serious condition and there are fears that some of them may have to have their penises amputated. The botched operations were performed at an initiation school in the rural town of Bizana in the Eastern Cape province on Thursday evening, and the boys were taken to the nearby St Peters Hospital. Ngame said the 25 initiates were the only ones at the school and the “circumcisions had gone wrong in every single case.” He said the police are considering opening a case of culpable homicide, but nobody has been arrested yet. The operations, generally performed in December and June when South African schools have long holiday breaks, frequently go wrong for lack of hygiene or proper training and with almost every initiation season comes stories of infection or death.