Two die at circumcision schools

Initial reports on the traditional circumcision schools in Limpopo this year indicate that the ritual is not 100% successful, as was the case last year.

Yesterday Chief Vusani Netshimbupfe, chairperson of the Limpopo Initiation School Task Team, told The New Age that 306 initiation schools were based in the province this winter although the final report was not yet available.

“Reports from districts such as Waterburg and Sekhukhune are still outstanding and we hope to get them this week. Two initiates died separately in Ga-Mashishi Village in Sekhukhune and one in Nwametoa in Mopani respectively. We have not received postmortem reports on the cause of deaths as yet. One initiation camp was closed down after we set police on it because operators were using fake documents. We transferred the affected initiates to another school,” said Netshimbupfe.

He said although most of the initiation schools were for males, there were a few for females. “We will be able to give you more details in terms of gender and the exact number of initiates once we have rubber stamped the official report on initiation schools for this year,” he said.

(da World News-Sud Africa)