Mass circumcision ceremony leaves 39 boys dead and dozens more mutilated after botched procedures during tribal 'initiation' in South Africa.
The Daily Mail, By JAMIE PYATT IN CAPE TOWN, 31 July 2025
The 2025 tribal 'initiation ceremony' where teenage males in South Africa undergo agonising circumcision has ended – with 39 deaths and dozens more boys mutilated.
Despite a target being set by the Government of zero fatalities this year, the figure is still a huge drop on last year where 93 died, while a total of 361 boys have died in the last five years.
Gruesome complications in 2024 led to 11 penis amputations after unskilled traditional 'surgeons' used old spears and razor blades to perform the eye-watering rituals.
Thousands more have ended up in hospital since 2020 after the twice-yearly three-month seasons of initiation which ends with the circumcision.
The ceremony, known as Ulwaluko, is typically carried out by Xhosa people and marks the transition from boyhood to manhood.
Boys generally undergo the centuries old ritual aged between 16 and 26.
Without undergoing the ceremony they are not allowed to sit in on tribal meetings, take part in some social activities or get married.
The rituals have been held for centuries in secret in specially built huts away from the villages where nobody except the tribal elders and the young initiates can enter.
The 2025 tribal 'initiation ceremony' where teenage males in South Africa undergo agonising circumcision has ended – with 39 deaths and dozens more boys mutilated. Picture: File image
The annual ceremony, known as Ulwaluko, is typically carried out by Xhosa people and marks the transition from boyhood to manhood. Pictured: File image
The Government lays the blame on criminal gangs who have set up hundreds of unregulated illegal initiation schools with untrained 'medics' who botch the circumcisions.
They ignore the law that anyone aged under 16 cannot undergo the ritual and charge high prices to families to carry out Ulwaluko often with fatal or horrific end results.
Gangrene, sepsis and dehydration are the main cause of death even though it has been reported boys who back out have also been stabbed, drowned or beaten to death.
There are hundreds of reports a year of illegal schools kidnapping boys as young as 12 and carrying out the surgery then forcing the parents to pay to get their sons back.
Although there are calls to ban the dangerous practices, some have argued that it is an important part of Xhosa life.
The Customary Initiation Act has been introduced to make it illegal for unregistered initiation schools to be set up and all traditional surgeons must now be qualified.
Police now have the powers to shut down the illegal schools and arrest the principals.
Every year tens of thousands of boys undergo the sacred ceremony which dates back for generations despite the very high death rate.
The worst of the injuries occur from botched circumcisions carried about by tribal 'nurses' who may use the same spear for many boys which cause mass infection. Pictured: File image
Although there are calls to ban the dangerous practices, some have argued that it is an important part of Xhosa life. Pictured: Young men who successfully underwent the circumcision in 2018
The Minister for the Department of Governance & Traditional Affairs had set a target of zero deaths for 2025 in registered schools while police shut down illegal schools.
According to a tribal chief Sipho Mahlangu, Deputy Chair of the National House of Traditional Leaders, 80% of initiates who die or mutilated are the victims of the illegal schools.
Most die due to severe dehydration after being forced not to drink to prevent urination after circumcision.
The Government has pledged to cut the number of illegal schools preying on teenagers in half from 429 by 2029.
Although boys have a choice as to whether they undertake the initiation there is huge peer pressure and those who refuse are named Inkwenkwe or 'boy' – a harsh insult.
Traditional surgeons charge parents to take the boys away for up to three weeks to teach them survival skills and how to behave as a man then perform the dreaded 'snip'.
Scotty Dawka, 19, went to an initiation school despite having seen a TV programme on penile amputations and told a local reporter: 'I was of course very scared of going.
'In my community many boys went through the initiation before me and I wanted to be the same as them. I wanted to be looked up to as a man in my village by the elders.
Despite a target being set by the government of zero fatalities this year, the figure is still a huge drop on last year where 93 died, while a total of 361 boys have died in the last five years. Pictured: File image
Gruesome complications in 2024 led to 11 penis amputations after unskilled traditional 'surgeons' used old spears and razor blades to perform the eye-watering rituals. Pictured: File image
Boys cannot take part in tribal meetings or even be included in some social activities or get married. Pictured: File Image
'It was very painful to go through and I fell ill but I was treated and survived' he said.
Anne Kumalo had her 16-year-old son kidnapped when he went to a local store along with 22 other boys and taken to an illegal initiation school 20 miles away in Soweto.
She said: 'I was charged R1000 (£43) to get him back or warned he would be killed and when police found the school the boys had been badly treated, whipped and beaten'.
Political party Action SA's Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip said: 'The bulk of deaths are caused by illegal initiation schools run by opportunistic and unqualified individuals.
'Now all the schools have to be registered and the surgeons properly trained,' he said.
In launching this year's winter initiation season, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Mr Velenkosini Hlabisi vowed to reduce the death toll greatly.
He said: 'All initiation schools are accountable and any school that contravenes the law and endangers lives then the law is unequivocal and they will be closed down at once.
'We cannot accept any more deaths and owe it to these young men and their families to ensure their journey into adulthood is safe, dignified and respected and of course safe.
Many initiates do not seek medical treatment despite being in agony for up to 10 days having been told that if it 'falls off' that it will grow back but then they die from sepsis. Pictured: File image
Most die due to severe dehydration after being forced not to drink to prevent urination after circumcision. Pictured: File image
'We cannot bring back the lives lost last year or before that but we can honour them by ensuring that no family has to ever endure going through that pain ever again,' he added.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela wrote about the spiritual meaning of his own circumcision as a teenager before becoming accepted as a freedom fighter.
Those who have undergone the sacred ritual are sworn to secrecy and considered tribal outcasts and severely beaten or killed if they tell anyone what the process entails.
The worst of the injuries occur from botched circumcisions carried about by tribal 'nurses' who may use the same spear for many boys which cause mass infection.
The wounds are tightly wrapped with bandages that cuts off the blood supply to the area and within 10 hours the genitals can become gangrenous and need amputating.
Many initiates do not seek medical treatment despite being in agony for up to 10 days having been told that if it 'falls off' that it will grow back but then they die from sepsis.
In the summer season from November to January 28 boys died, while 11 boys have died since May, with the figure for penile amputations unreported.
Pediatricians turn away from circumcision
The United States is the only country that routinely circumcises baby boys for non-religious reasons
CNN, U.S.A.
March 1, 1999
ATLANTA (CNN) -- American pediatricians are turning away from the practice of routine circumcision, concluding that doctors have no good medical reason to perform the procedure.
The United States is the only country in the world that routinely removes the foreskins of infant boys. Critics of circumcision got additional ammunition Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a leading medical organization.
The academy concluded the benefits "are not compelling enough" for circumcision to be routinely administered.
A newborn winces in pain after a circumcision
Monday's statement, published in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics, was the academy's first in 10 years on the practice. But in recent years, medical societies in Canada, Britain and Australia have come out in opposition to routine circumcision.
Critics have long contended that removing the foreskin from the penis is traumatic, medically unnecessary and may reduce sexual pleasure later in life. As one critic, Dr. George Denniston, put it: "Who are we to question mother nature?"
Canadian researchers, whose study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, studied the heart rates and crying patterns of babies during different stages of circumcision.
In fact, in the study they found the babies suffered so much trauma that they stopped the study part way through.
The results were so compelling that they took the unusual step of stopping the study before it was scheduled to end rather than subjecting any Read More ..bies to circumcision.
One baby stopped breathing for 25 seconds from the trauma of having part of his foreskin severed. Read More ..
Baby Dies of Herpes in Ritual Circumcision By Orthodox Jews
ABC News, U.S.A., by Susan Donaldson James, March 12, 2012
New York City is investigating the death last September of a baby who contracted herpes after a "ritual circumcision with oral suction," in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish ceremony known in Hebrew as metzitzah b'peh.
The district attorney's office in Kings County Brooklyn is investigating the death of the 2-week-old baby at Maimonides Hospital, but would not disclose the name of the mohel or whether there would be a prosecution.
The 5,000-year-old religious practice is seen primarily in ultra-Orthodox and some orthodox communities and has caused an alarm among city health officials. In 2003 and 2004, three babies, including a set of twins, were infected with Type 1 herpes; the cases were linked to circumcision, and one boy died.
The mohel who performed the procedures, Yitzchok Fischer, was later banned from doing circumcisions, according to The New York Times. It is not known if he was involved in this recent death.
"It's certainly not something any of us recommend in the modern infection-control era," said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.
"This is a ritual of historic Abraham that's come down through the ages, and now it has met modern science," he said. "It was never a good idea, and there is a better way to do this." (The modern Jewish community uses a sterile aspiration device to clean the wound in a circumcision.)
In the 2004 death and the more recent one, a mohel infected the penile wounds with Type 1 herpes I (HSV-1), which affects the mouth and throat. It is different from Type 2 or genital herpes (HSV-2), which is a sexually transmitted disease and can cause deadly infections when a newborn passes through an infected birth canal.
Neonatal herpes is "almost always" a fatal infection, according to Schaffner. "It's a bad virus. [Infants] have no immunity and so it's a very serious illness. Now we have another death -- an unnecessary, incredibly tragic death."
Circumcision Botched by Jewish Father Results in Conviction for Aggravated Assault
The Canadian Press
Dec. 22, 2011
VANCOUVER - A B.C. man who performed a botched circumcision on his four-year-old son on the kitchen floor of his home has lost an appeal of his conviction and been found guilty of a more serious charge.
The B.C. Court of Appeal has stayed the man's conviction for criminal negligence causing bodily harm and convicted him of aggravated assault.
Court heard the boy was born premature at only 2.5 pounds and could not be circumcised at the time, nor did his parents request it.
South Korean Doctors
Male circumcision based on myths and misinformation
Peak age of circumcision of males in Korea is 12 years old!
UTIs are rare
"Of every 1,000 boys who are circumcised 2 will be admitted to hospital for a urinary tract infection (UTI) before they are one year old."
"Of every 1,000 boys who are not circumcised 7 will be admitted to hospital for a UTI before they are one year old. "
Sur 1 000 garçons circoncis 2 seront hospitalisés en raison d'une infection urinaire avant l'âge d'un an.
Sur 1 000 garçons non circoncis 7 seront hospitalisés par suite d'une infection urinaire avant l'âge d'un an.
CanadianCRC editor:
Anyone who states that urinary tract infections are common among newborn baby boys, and therefore
advocates that the genital mutilation of boys ( male circumcision) will stop urinary tract infections, is a liar or misinformed.
Besides, urinary tract infections are entirely treatable.
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CanadianCRC editor's Note: Reminder about our policy: Many sides of an issue are expressed in articles on this website. Many articles contain points of view which should be heard but are not the position of the Canadian Children's Rights Council.