initiation – praag.org

Ancyl: Table Mountain to become initiation spot

The ANC Youth League in the Western Cape claims it has the support of traditional leaders in its proposal to make a portion of Table Mountain National Park available for young men undergoing initiation.

“We have engaged in a very extensive engagement with traditional leaders. We did this because we thought maybe our view might be narrow and we need to include other views,” ANCYL spokesperson Siyabulela Tom said this week.

“It was a very much needed exercise because it put us in a position to engage with some issues we hadn’t considered.”

He said the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) supported their cause and call “100%”.

But Contralesa general secretary Xolile Ndevu on Tuesday said it represented at least 8 000 traditional leaders around the country.

He said he was not aware of the youth league’s proposal and directed enquiries to the congress’s provincial chair Aaron Messelaar. Messelaar was not available for comment on Tuesday.

At the start of the month, the youth league said the national reserve was suitable to host initiates from around the province as it was private, mountainous and spacious.

It bemoaned a lack of suitable space for the African tradition.

Meanwhile the Hawks in the Eastern Cape have been requested to probe the deaths of initiates around the province, the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) said on Tuesday.

Cogta Deputy Minister Obed Bapela wanted the Hawks to look into cases where initiates died because of serious head injuries and burn wounds.

Meanwhile, the number of initiates who have died during this year’s circumcision winter season has risen to 31, with the North West reporting its first death.

The Eastern Cape had the highest fatalities recorded, with 26 deaths reported thus far.

Limpopo reported three deaths, followed by Mpumalanga with one.

Source: News24

Witchdoctor accused of abducting youths

An Mpumalanga initiation school owner is accused of abducting and circumcising youths in Machadodorp.

Black initiation schools are run by witchdoctors, known as “traditional healers”.

This is in contravention of the Mpumalanga Ingoma Act which states that no person may be forced to attend initiation school against their will.

They use extreme intimidation on potential customers by claiming to have a mystical powers.

Affected parents say they fear for their children’s lives and that their children have been captured without their consent.

At least 30 initiates died in Mpumalanga two years ago due to circumcisions performed in dubious surroundings.

SA performs first penis transplant

South African doctors announced Friday that they had performed the world’s first successful penis transplant, three months after the ground-breaking operation.

South Africa has long been a pioneer of transplant surgery. In 1967, Chris Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

The 21-year-old black patient had his penis amputated three years ago after a botched circumcision at a traditional initiation ceremony. Scores of black South African men from certain tribes have their penises amputated each year after botched circumcisions during primitive rituals.

In a nine-hour operation at the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, he received his new penis from a deceased donor from the same racial group.

Professor Frank Graewe, head of plastic reconstructive surgery at Stellenbosch University, performed the operation. Graewe studied at Pretoria University.

The patient has made a full recovery since the operation on December 11 and regained all urinary and reproductive functions only five weeks after the procedure.

“Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years and we are very surprised by his rapid recovery,” said Professor Andre van der Merwe, head of Stellenbosch’s urology division.

“There is a greater need in South Africa for this type of procedure than elsewhere in the world,” Van der Merwe said in a statement.

The South African transplant team included three senior doctors, transplant coordinators, anaesthetists, theatre nurses, a psychologist and an ethicist.

Surgeons from Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital had searched extensively for a suitable donor from the same racial group as part of a pilot study to develop penis transplants in Africa.

Some techniques were developed from the first facial transplant in France in 2005.

They now plan to perform nine more similar operations.

Some 486 Xhosa boys died at the winter initiation schools between 2008 and 2013, with a major cause being complications such as infection, rotting penises, septicaemia and inadvertent castrations after circumcision. The initiates are drugged with marijuana and witchcraft potions.

Xhosas spend about a month naked in secluded bush or mountain regions as part of their secretive initiation ritual. They thus become part of the Xhosa ethnic tribe. They paint their faces white during the ritual.

Former presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are all circumcised Xhosas, belonging to South Africa’s second largest tribe, who never gave up the practice. President Jacob Zuma is regarded as a “boy” because he is an uncircumcised Zulu.

All gain a warrior name and are briefed on the terrible dangers of white witches during the initiation ceremony.

The Zulu king, King Goodwill Zwelithini’s decision in 2010 to reintroduce circumcision 200 years after it was scrapped by King Shaka, alarmed health officials who said HIV is spread because the same blunt knife is used on large groups.

13 dead: Mandela’s tribe celebrates annual circumcision rites

Nelson Mandela was very much in favour of his Xhosa tribe’s annual initiation rite during which circumcision for teenage boys takes place in remote rural areas, usually with blunt instruments that are not sterilised.

The current “initiation season” is upon us in South Africa and so far the body count is 13. Of course, no-one in the outside world would ever report about this as it would be considered “racist” or at least politically incorrect to question African cultural practices, endorsed by the Great Xhosa himself.

According to provincial health department, “thirteen initiates have died in the Eastern Cape since the beginning of the winter initiation season”.

Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said hospitals were overcrowded with severely ill initiates seeking medical assistance.

“The worst affected area is Mthatha in the OR Tambo region where health centres are clogged. Boys are brought in with their penises practically falling off,” Kupelo said.

The already constrained health system in the province was suffering a setback because of the initiation season.

“The day to day work by health workers is severely affected, the department is spending R1 000 on each initiate brought in for treatment,” said Kupelo.

The department had set aside R20m to intervene and help the initiates.

Private healthcare services and an additional 37 SUV vehicles have been hired to get health workers to initiates in the mountains.

Premier Modise calls for clamp down on illegal initiation schools after death of two

North West Premier Thandi Modise has called on provincial authorities to clamp down on initiation schools that operate outside the law. This follows the death of two teens at an initiation in Makwaneng near Amalia since Friday.

“Chancers and those who commit atrocities at initiation schools undermine our tradition and culture and should be brought to book. We call on traditional leaders as custodians of our tradition and culture to monitor initiation schools within their areas of jurisdiction and report ill-treatment and illegal operations to authorities,” stressed Premier Modise

According to police, a 16-year-old started vomiting after drinking water on Friday. He reportedly collapsed and died

“The next day, a 17-year-old complained of stomach cramps after eating and was later declared dead by emergency services, The remaining initiates were taken to a hospital in Schweizer-Reneke,”said Colonel Emelda Setlhako.

While investigations are continuing,Setlhako said that no arrests had been made.