A 14-year-old boy has died after apparently being asphyxiated by fumes from a brazier at an initiation school in Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the boy, who was not a candidate for initiation, was in a hut at the PPC initiation village on Monday when he was overcome by the fumes. The only other person in the hut, a candidate initiate, was not harmed.
The police have opened an inquest docket, and a post-mortem will be conducted to establish the exact cause of his death, he said.
The incident comes as the annual winter circumcision season gets under way.
Kupelo said the department will be investigating a report that only three traditional nurses had been in attendance on the 20 huts at the village instead of the one nurse per hut as required by the province’s legislation on circumcision schools.
”We are going to enforce the law”.
It was important that people learn from the incident and be vigilant, Kupelo said. – Sapa