MEC’s bold plan to end initiation tragedies

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Zolile Williams wants doctors to perform circumcisions in temporary clinics and healthcare facilities set up in initiation camps to modernise the custom of ulwaluko and curb the number of deaths and injuries.

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But his call could set him on a collision course with some traditionalists.

He said the death and injury statistics were more consistent with war casualties than the practice of a traditional rite.

Speaking at a two-day traditional initiation summit in East London on Monday, Williams said the time might have come to replace traditional surgeons with trained medical doctors to conduct traditional circumcision procedures in initiation schools.

“The custom is not static, it moves with time.

“We need to debate the possibility of having circumcision procedures conducted by trained and professional medical doctors who have undergone the rite,” he said.

“This will be done in the mountains and initiation schools in traditional set-ups.

“I have spoken to doctors and I think they could help.”

Williams also wants temporary clinics and healthcare facilities in initiation camps to reduce the stigma of initiates who need medical attention as they would not need to be rushed to hospitals..

Between 2006 and 2022, more than 10,000 initiates were admitted to hospital, more than 900 died and 400 lost their manhood.

“These are the figures of a country at war,” he said.

“One could be excused thinking these were battle statistics.”

But Williams conceded his ideas might be controversial.

“I know the amaXhosa are very conservative.

“But because of that, more than 900 initiates died while more than 400 others have had penile amputations..

“One death is one too many.

“If we don’t win this battle, the national government will declare it a national disaster and shut it down.

“I still hold the view that the tradition does not kill, but it is the practitioners who tarnish the sacred tradition.”

Williams ordered district and local municipalities to establish a database of registered and approved traditional surgeons and nurses and make it public.

During the 2022 summer initiation season, 31,791 initiates successfully graduated from the initiation schools and 22 initiates died.

Nineteen of the 22 deaths were linked to dehydration and the mismanagement of septic wounds.

During the 2023 winter season, 9,578 initiates went through the rite and 20 died.

“This rite should not kill or maim — it rather builds good character and contributes to responsible adulthood, social cohesion, and nation-building.

“No child must die in the bush, because the practice does not kill,” Williams said.

However, Williams’s comments received a chilly reception from some traditional leaders.

On Tuesday, Premier Oscar Mabuyane said the task was to reconcile the cherished traditions of Nguni cultures in the Eastern Cape with the medical imperatives of the HIV and Aids era.

Williams declared the 2023 summer initiation season would officially open on Friday for out-of-school youths, and from November 17 for initiates still at school.

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