Almost every year I write a column about initiates who die during the season of circumcision. Shockingly again, 23 young men died in the North East of Mpumalanga from botched circumcisions. Worse, it was at a government-registered initiation site where medical practitioners were supposed to be present and supervise the sites. But is clear that they were not there according to a report from the House of Traditional leaders in the province.
To add insult to injury, the Health MEC, Matshego Dlamini, actually said, "This is a tradition; as a woman I cannot go; if they are dead or not, it is a tradition." Equally idiotic, a member of the traditional leaders commented on TV that, "Only God knows who is going to die." No, Mr Leader, even we South Africans know that a number of initiates will die, because it is predictable and it is an annual occurrence! This when we have the best doctors in the country and when our Constitution clearly prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
That a black-led majority government allows young black men to die year in and year out is unacceptable. By now government should have designed a preventative and enforceable health policy to avoid these unnecessary deaths. Just as there are doctors providing free optometry and cataract surgery, just so, many doctors would volunteer to provide circumcision under pristine surgical conditions. But again, politics trumps black life. Reluctant to alienate the House of Traditional Leaders government allows this practice to continue unabated under the most primitive of conditions.
Fortunately, the trade unionist, who condemned the MEC and traditional leader in the strongest terms, should be applauded. Accusing them of a gross dereliction of duty and for placing customary practices above the sanctity of life, he demanded they be held accountable. It would be fair to say that much of our domestic and sexual violence happen because these botched or poorly performed circumcisions impede the normal sexual function of many men. Given our culture of machismo and patriarchy, many men are emasculated by these botched circumcisions.
One of the interns in my office must still go to the "bush". The prospect terrifies him. The burden of wanting to be a "man" and having to go through this life-threatening ordeal weighs heavily on him. I talk to him about it often and am prepared to pay for him to have the operation done in a medical centre. As tantalising as this option is, it is just not the Xhosa way of doing things. So he walks around burdened. But no one should have to feel threatened by a rite of passage that is a sine qua non for young black men.
South Africa is a modern democracy and it is high time that we place this issue firmly on the public agenda and get the Commission for Customary and Religious Rights to advise government how best to deal with a custom that is considered sacred, but which has fatal consequences. As the trade union leader said: "custom is not more important than life." And it is high time that we have a conversation about why rights to equality trumps customary law.
Female circumcision solicited the same debate and internationally the United Nations commissioned a lot of research around this horrendous and humiliating practice. And while it still occurs, the practice is in decline due to the education of women, and pressure on governments to outlaw this barbaric practice. Any custom or tradition that hurts a person should be abolished. That is the nub of the issue.
This article first appeared in Die Burger.
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