Traditional bodies have called on traditional surgeons and community leaders to be on alert to avoid deaths by placing initiates in warm places, as the majority of initiation schools are situated in wet and cold conditions.
The Eastern Cape is experiencing extremely cold weather and this is causing a lack of service to initiates because health officials and traditional leaders struggle to travel to these initiation schools.
Provinces such as the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng are currently experiencing freezing temperatures which has raised concerns from traditional circumcision bodies.
Andile Siko, who is the Traditional Circumcision Association chairperson and a surgeon, said the extreme temperatures are causing a lot of panic as a majority of the initiation schools are situated and built in wet areas where it is difficult for them to get help if needed.
Siko further said that initiation schools need to be under the supervision of older traditional leaders, as the majority of leaders do not have enough experience to take care of these young boys during cold weather conditions to avoid deaths.
Siko has called on the government to offer equipment to circumcision schools in order to avoid the deaths of initiates.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) spokesperson Mamkeli Ngam, also maintained that traditional circumcision surgeons should remove initiates from initiation schools where they cannot be easily accessed during cold weather conditions.
“One of the important pieces of advice we have is that these schools should take these initiates back home if there is a need to do so, or else look for proper shelters where they can be accommodated, as we do not want to record deaths in these schools.
“It is important to remind traditional leaders and parents to take responsibility for their children's health during the winter season as it is cold; hence, it is important to keep initiates in a warm environment.
“In the past, we had situations where initiates would die as a result of a cold conditions,” Ngam said.
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