2009/11/20
A BOGUS traditional surgeon has been arrested by East London police for allegedly circumcising underage boys in Fort Grey township.
The suspect, 25, who cannot be named as he hasn’t been formally charged, was reported to community leaders by angry residents yesterday morning.
It is alleged he circumcised two underage boys without their parents’ permission. Yesterday, police – together with traditional council member Maxhobandile Gqitani – swooped on the man while he was asleep in his home. The man later took the police to makeshift huts where the initiates were placed temporarily.
“At this stage the suspect is not formally charged as we are waiting for the parents to lay formal complaints,” said East London police spokesperson Superintendent Mtati Tana yesterday.
Gqitani said the council’s mission was to stop unqualified traditional surgeons from operating in the area before the summer initiation season started. “We know that these people want to make money by circumcising these teenagers and leaving them to die in these illegal schools.”
Yesterday five underage teenagers, one of them 13 years old, were identified by residents and police as having been circumcised illegally.
The mother of the 13-year-old said she never gave permission for him to go to the initiation school.
“These kids are approached by these illegal surgeons to go to this school without our permission. My child stole my money to pay this man for this job,” said the mother.
“These people know that there is a lot of money involved in this circumcision business as many kids want to go to this school.”
Interviewed by the Daily Dispatch yesterday, the 13-year-old said peer pressure had led to him “stealing R100” and paying a surgeon to be circumcised. — By BONGANI FUZILE, Crime Reporter. bonganif@dispatch.co.za
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