TSHAKHUMA - Fifteen boys have been admitted to the Tshilidzini Hospital after they were circumcised at a public clinic at Tshakhuma village on Sunday.

Dr Frank Ndambi of Tshilidzini Hospital disclosed that one of the boys would have to undergo more surgery because of his condition, as the circumciser didn’t perform the circumcision properly. The fifteen were groaning in pain, but now their condition is stable.

The Director of Communication in the Department of Health and Social Welfare, Mr Phuti Seloba, said only doctors are allowed to circumcise the boys and nurses are not allowed to do that. “The Department is going to investigate the two nurses who are circumcising boys in the public clinic at Tshakhuma village, and if the Health Department finds them guilty, they will be arrested.”

Kgosi Setlamorago Tobejane of Contralesa in the Limpopo Province said the two women must be investigated and arrested because they are giving a bad name to the beautiful initiation.

Several parents of the boys said they were recruited to send children for circumcision by a woman. She promised them that, after the circumcision, the children would get medication, a bath, and free removal of the bandage, but she didn’t keep her word.

“We paid R200 for each boy to be circumcised and now we want our money back. The penises of our children were swollen, with plasma leaking. We phoned the woman, reporting the condition of our children, and she advised us to bring the boys back to where they were circumcised,” they said.

“We were not even shown how to wash a circumcised boy,” they added.

“We were convinced that only clinics or hospital are institutions that can run circumcision well and safely. We were not aware that our children are going to the private clinic at Tshakhuma for circumcision. We were not aware that our sons were going to the moneymongers’ clinic,” they said. The circumciser is not a surgical doctor.

* In the Mopani area, a boy was injured by a group of people who were trying to force the boy to go to the bush initiation school. They police said no stone will be left unturned and the group of boys who tried to force others to be circumcised should be arrested.

Police Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi confirmed that 15 boys are groaning in pain at Tshilidzini Hospital, and the police are investigating the two women. Their clinic is registered, but if they are found guilty, they will be arrested.