CAPE TOWN, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Parliament on Sunday assured tribal chiefs of their leadership in traditional initiation.
Parliament's ongoing process to pass the Customary Initiation Bill (CIB) "is not intended to usurp custodianship of traditional initiation," said Richard Mdakane, Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Parliament is currently holding public hearings into the CIB. At its first hearing in Rustenburg, North West Province, people emphasized the difference between medical circumcision and traditional initiation, as well as the role of tribal chiefs in the tradition.
Some tribal chiefs have expressed concern that the CIB, once becoming law, would deprive them of their leadership in traditional initiation.
Responding to the concern, Mdakane said tribal chiefs' authority in traditional initiation is guaranteed in the Constitution.
The CIB, tabled in Parliament on April 5 this year, has provoked discussions throughout the country.
The bill aims to provide for the effective regulation of customary initiation practices and provide for the establishment of a National Initiation Oversight Committee and Provincial Initiation Coordinating Committees to supervise initiation practice.
"Through this piece of legislation, we're doing something for the nation. We can't have a culture that brings tears to the people," Mdakane said.
Every year dozens of boys die and many more are hospitalized in South Africa as a result of botched initiation. In the last 10 years there have been more than 1,000 penile amputations.
Given this situation, there have been growing calls for introducing a law to strictly regulate circumcision.
Circumcision is viewed 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. Traditionally tribal chiefs act as custodians of initiation.
Quack doctors take advantage of the tradition to force teenagers to go to illegal initiation schools to be circumcised.
It concerns Parliament when culture gets distorted, Mdakane said, adding that distortion causes havoc.
It is important for society to understand what is being taught at initiation schools and the content of the schools should be proper so as to ensure that parents feel at ease when their children are at initiation schools, he said.
"Culture is about development of society we want to return better man and women from these school," Mdakane said.
He said tribal chiefs and kings will be invited to Parliament once the current process is finalized to get their input on how best to practice the tradition.
