A would-be initiate has died of malnutrition after he and twenty-one other boys were found hidden in the Ntabankulu mountains in the Eastern Cape, the province’s health department said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the boys had been kept in the mountains for more than three weeks and were denied food. They were all taken to hospital suffering from malnutrition.
”They look like skeletons,” he said. One 17-year-old boy, who had not yet been circumcised, died.
Kupelo said the health department would recommend a post-mortem and that a case of murder be opened.
It is believed another 149 initiates and would-be initiates are still hidden in the mountainous region.
The health department received a tip-off and spent the whole of Wednesday night searching for the boys, said Kupelo.
”The area [where they are hidden] is very hard to reach and we might have to send helicopters.”
He said the bogus traditional healer responsible was expected to be arrested on Thursday.
”We don’t understand why a human being can do something like this. This is against the custom, it is contradicting custom,” said Kupelo.
He said parents would be encouraged to lay charges against those responsible.
”We cannot allow our children to be killed by opportunistic individuals in the name of custom… they are making the custom a laughing stock.”
He said the boys who went off to the so-called initiation schools did so on their own and without permission from their parents.
Eight boys have died from botched circumcisions since the start of the winter initiation season. – Sapa