S. Africa mulls new courts for illegal circumcision

South African authorities say they want to introduce special courts to prosecute people doing botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape as they try to stamp out a practice that has left boys dead or mutilated.

Since 1995, more than 6,000 boys have been admitted to hospital in the province, with over 30 dying and 70 needing their genitals amputated after complications or infections, provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said.

"We are saying enough is enough,” he said. “By setting up these courts, we want to tackle traditional circumcision offenders head-on. We are talking to the justice department to see if it is possible.”

The province wants to set up special courts during the peak June to December circumcision season to fast-track cases because it says mainstream courts have been slow to bring prosecutions.

Circumcision is seen as a crucial initiation step for young men amongst many of the tribes in Eastern Cape, Kupelo said.

But it has become more common because it has been adopted by members of tribes who not previously practised it, giving the province the highest circumcision rate in the country.

“In some places it is still done in the traditional way and it is properly monitored,” Kupelo said. “The problem is those who are doing it illegally.”

Under South African law, traditional nurses, surgeons and healers need a permit to carry out circumcision, and the boys must be over 18 and undergo a medical check-up.

But some practitioners were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they carried out the circumcisions, Kupelo said, and in other cases, sometimes fatal complications arose from poor hygiene or surgical skill.

People who break the law could face up to 15 years in prison, he said, but of the 60 people arrested since 2002, only 25 have been convicted and some were still waiting for their cases to be heard.

The number of deaths has been cut since health officials began patrolling rural areas using helicopters and off-road vehicles looking for illegal circumcisions taking place, he said, but many still take place illegally.

“It also contributes to AIDS,” Kupelo added. “We had one man who had done 161 boys with the same instrument. The youngest of the boys was 8 years old.”

South Africa has the highest number of people living with AIDS or the HIV virus that causes it, with an estimated one in nine of the country’s 45 million people believed to be infected. 

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