A sixth initiate from a school in the Ratanda, Heidelberg, area died on Monday, according to news reports.
Papa Mbovane (19) reportedly died of internal injuries at Heidelberg Hospital after he had been returned to an initiation school by his family on Wednesday last week after he had been removed from the school the day before.
Meanwhile, Gauteng police searched in vain for a missing initiate in Heidelberg on Monday. Charges were dropped against an initiation school teacher arrested last week.
Heidelberg detective services chief, Superintendent Roy Fry, said the eight-hour search was called off after police found nothing.
Police had feared that another initiate had died after a youth escaped from a camp on Sunday night and claimed he woke up next to a dead initiate.
The boy did not go along when the police went to the camp to investigate and has since disappeared.
Fry said a search-and-rescue dog squad and police divers backed up by a helicopter combed the area for hours on Monday before concluding there was no body.
Gauteng health representative Simon Zwane said the department also visited the area on Monday, but could not find any new unregistered initiation schools.
Meanwhile, fifteen initiates have been admitted to the general hospital in Umtata in the Eastern Cape, SABC reported on Tuesday.
Hospital representative Alicia Spambo said two of them were in a serious condition while several others were being treated for dehydration and septic sores.
The Eastern Cape government last year passed legislation to regulate circumcision practices.
If initiation school surgeons are found to have violated the regulations, they could face a possible prison sentence of between six and ten years. – Sapa