Action is needed to stop deaths in initiation schools from ruining the custom, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities said on Monday.
”We cannot go on like this. One death is [a] loss too many for cultural communities …,” commission chairperson Mongezi Guma said in reaction to the deaths of at least 16 initiates and hospitalisation of several others in the Eastern Cape alone.
” … These tragedies undermine the very essence of this historically tested cultural practice.”
The National House of Traditional Leaders announced last week that it will appoint a four-member task team to get ”first-hand information” on ongoing problems with traditional circumcision ceremonies.
Guma said the commission cannot watch from the sidelines as self-serving people ruined the culture.
It will meet other organisations involved in the matter and is planning an extensive consultative process with those running the custom.
”If, as reported in newspapers, 16-year-olds are now running some of these schools, it points to a serious breakdown of systems of accountability and an abdication of responsibility by parents and custodians of this cultural practice, and that cannot be allowed to continue,” he said.
Guma warned that arbitrarily banning circumcisions could lead to more illegal schools.
”This is the same reason termination of pregnancy was made legal, so that we can save vulnerable women and children from backyard abortions and that people can receive proper intervention.”
The National House of Traditional leaders has already proposed uniform provincial and national legislation on circumcision — the Eastern Cape and Limpopo both have circumcision Acts .
The Eastern Cape department of health has embarked on an ”outreach” programme to educate the public about correct circumcision procedures. — Sapa