An initiation-school surgeon was arrested following the death of two initiates in Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape, the health department said on Sunday.
Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the 30-year-old man was arrested on Sunday afternoon after evading arrest on Saturday.
He had apparently been involved in a circumcision ceremony that left the two boys dead and another in a serious condition at the Nelson Mandela Hospital. One of the boys, aged 16, died at the Nyambe Village, and a 17-year-old from the same ceremony died later at the hospital.
Their penises had been extensively cut and villagers believed witchcraft was to blame for the deaths, he said. ”There is a myth that the boys are visited by a spirit of an evil woman, who pulls the boys by their penises after the initiation, therefore resulting in the mutilation, and their deaths.”
But a 17-year-old believed to have run the illegal initiation school was arrested on Saturday. His alleged accomplice, the 30-year-old arrested on Sunday, fled the scene.
Gauteng death
Meanwhile, in Gauteng, a 15-year-old boy was found dead by fellow circumcision initiates at a mountain between De Deur and Orange Farm on Sunday morning, Vaal Rand police said.
Spokesperson Captain William Mcera said the boy was among nine others circumcised by an illegal surgeon on Friday. It was not clear how the boy died, but the other boys said ”he couldn’t wake up in the morning”, Mcera said. ”A post-mortem will be conducted to establish the cause of death because all the boys said he was OK when they went to sleep on Saturday night.”
The nine boys aged 15 and 16 have been sent home to their parents while police are searching for their surgeon.
In Potchefstroom in North West province, an under-aged boy died on Saturday night after an initiation in Zandukwana village. — Sapa