CAPE TOWN, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- South African authorities vowed on Friday to intensify fight against botched circumcision which has led to a spike in deaths of initiates recently across the country.
The national government and traditional leaders have committed themselves to curbing further deaths related with botched circumcision, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (DCGTA) said in its latest update on initiation-related deaths in the country.
Since the summer initiation season began in November, there have been 34 reported deaths of initiates, according to the department.
Of them, 20 were reported in Eastern Cape Province, the hotbed of botched circumcision, eight in the Free State, three in North West, two in the Western Cape and one in the Northern Cape, the department said.
The deaths were reported despite an intensified crackdown on illegal initiation schools in a bid to achieve the goal of zero deaths during the initiation season.
This prompted Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zwelini Mkhize to convene an urgent meeting with the Eastern Cape traditional leadership on Thursday to discuss ways of curbing further deaths of initiates during the traditional ritual of cirucumcision.
Emerging from the meeting, Mkhize said the national government and traditional leaders were seriously concerned about the lives of the initiates and would try to avoid further deaths by all costs.
Traditional leaders are desperate to work with the government and medical doctors to curb the number of deaths which stands at about 400 since 2012, the minister said.
"There was also general consensus to revive and implement the agreement made between amakhosi (traditional leaders) and government departments which helped reduce fatalities in 2015. This is a positive step," said Mkhize.
The minister will convene another meeting to focus on ensuring zero-deaths and zero-mutilation at the second week of January 2019, the DCGTA said.
Circumcision is viewed as a sacred practice in African cultures, marking a male's transition from child to adulthood. According to the tradition, young males have to be circumcised as the passage to manhood.
Every year dozens of boys die and many more are hospitalized in South Africa as a result of botched circumcision.
