The Eastern Cape government has spent R104-million on treating botched traditional circumcisions since 2001, according to provincial health MEC Bevan Goqwana.
He released the figure on Monday at a three-day conference in East London on circumcision.
He said it cost R700 a day for an initiate to be treated in hospital, and those injured spend on average 30 days in hospital.
Since the introduction of the province’s Traditional Circumcision Act in 2001, 4 932 initiates had been hospitalised.
The conference is being attended by traditional leaders from across the Eastern Cape and other provinces, by traditional healers and surgeons, academics, and representatives of local government and the provincial departments of health and traditional affairs.
Goqwana told them that there was a ”leadership void” in dealing with the issue of circumcision and initiation in general.
He challenged traditional leaders to take the initiative in seeking ”sustainable” solutions to the challenges faced by the custom.
”The conference was called because there are botched circumcisions,” said one of the organisers, Prince Langa Mavuso.
”Traditional leaders decided that we should not keep quiet when people are dying.”
Mavuso said women had also been invited to the conference ”because they’ve got a role as far as initiation is concerned. Women are the ones who build the initiation lodge with grass, and also they have a role in cooking for the child”. – Sapa