After hundreds of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, the provincial Health Department has launched an expanded programme to help young men whose male genitalia have been amputated during the cultural initiation procedures.
Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha has been chosen as the healthcare centre to administer penile rehabilitation, announced Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, who said during a stakeholders' meeting in East London last month that 371 initiates died between 2016 and 2024 while, during the same period, 110 young men had penile amputations due to negligence in traditional circumcision.
In the same period, 3 298 boys were admitted to hospital for health complications resulting from circumcisions, News24 reports.
“A total number of 110 amputations is a disaster,” said Hlabisa, who this weekend engaged representatives of senior traditional leaders, headmen, and headwomen in Mthatha to strengthen efforts aimed at ensuring safer initiation during the winter season.
He added that 29 initiates had died in the summer initiation season.
Provincial Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said the penile rehabilitation programme was launched in 2018 after a “growing number of patients who either visited or were in need of urological services after botched circumcision”.
A special team assembled for the programme included plastic surgeons, urologists and psychologists.
Manana said 60 young men have been operated on through the programme since 2018, “with a good success rate”.
The department planned to target hospitals like St Barnabas in Libode, Madzikane kaZulu in KwaBhaca, and Zithulele in Mqanduli to increase the programme’s footprint.
The Minister said they would engage the national Department of Health to upscale the programme.
Asked if his department was in support of medical and professional male circumcision, conducted in hospitals, Hlabisa said: “That should be the choice of a parent. Parents must make decision whether they want their child to go through medical male circumcision …because there is a difference between circumcision and initiation. Initiation is a cultural rite, which has certain processes to be followed.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Customary Initiation Act encompassing ‘provincial peculiarities’ gazetted
Eastern Cape may flout advice and lift circumcision rites’ ban
Traditional leaders reject SA govt ban on winter circumcision season
Eastern Cape Health report highlights scale initiation death crisis
As deaths mount, a call for medical circumcision to replace the traditional