In an effort to try and avoid being the laughing stock for not being circumcised, the 72- year-old Marupeng Kamela of Mpepule village outside Giyani swallowed his pride, left his three children at home and handed himself over to be circumcised.

The pensioner ascended the mountain at Mpepule Village and was among the 703 initiates who celebrated the closing of the bush school last Friday. He formed part of the group of circumcised young boys from the village. According to Kamela, he is proud and feels he can now discuss manhood issues with others. “It was just an opportunity of a lifetime and I am happy that I have gone to the mountains,” he said.

The circumcision boss, Chief Moloko Norman Tshwale, told Mirror it was his first bush school since he was installed as the chief in 2007 and he circumcised 703 boys. Tshwale hired men to deal with the catering for the boys in the bush and no deaths were reported at his school.

Seeing that Giyani was declared a drought area last month, the clever Tshwale used a borehole, installed pipelines and pumped water with generators to his circumcision school. His bush camp was electrified, using generators as a source of power. The 703 boys were also living in tents where they didn’t suffer from the cold.

“I charged them R700 each and this fee included food and medication. Apart from Kamela, the 52-year-old Thomas Baloyi was also among the 703 boys. He also swallowed his pride and joined the others,” he said.

One of the parents, Willeth Mafumo of Maphata Village, said he had sent his three boys, Hlavutelo Mafumo, Xitsundzuxo Mafumo and Lovers Mabunda, to be circumcised in the bush. “I am happy that the school boss was handling it in a very professional manner and there was not even a single death reported. At a lot of the circumcision schools children are dying, and this causes parents not to want to send their boys to the bush school,” said Mafumo.

Chief Vusani Netshimbupfe of the Limpopo House of Tradition praised Chief Tshwale for having circumcising 703 boys without any incidents.

Netshimbupfe said he is still worrying about the fact that a 13-year-old boy died of excessive bleeding at Chrissy Village in Waterberg under the Mokopane Traditional Council and another 12-year-old boy died at Kwagga Village in Mopani under the Madjedje Traditional Council after forgetting his asthmatic medication at home a week ago.

“Limpopo was only left with three days to celebrate the 0% death rate at the 325 legal initiation schools, but our joy turned into sorrow after the death of these two boys. Three weeks ago, we closed two illegal bush schools in Mopani and two more in Sekhukhune District, as they were operating without permits,” said Netshimbupfe, adding that all official initiation schools closed on Saturday, July 18.

He added that the 2009 death statistics are low compared to previous years. Last year, six initiates died in the Limpopo bush schools. In 2006, 327 schools were registered and 43 were declared illegal. Out of the 40 314 boys who were initiated that year, 12 died. “In 2007, we registered a total of 243 schools and 32 300 boys were initiated. Seven illegal schools were reported and five death cases were reported,” said Netshimbupfe.