A report by South African-based NGO, Sonke Gender Justice, claiming 42 youths passed away as a result of customary illegal circumcisions has been rehashed.
The figures come in the wake of pledges by the country’s provincial governments for the national police service to exert “zero tolerance” on “illegal initiation schools.”
The practice is considered a rite of passage for boys belonging to the country’s 10-million-strong Xhosa ethnic group. It entails taking youths from their homes–sometimes against their will–into huts in the bush where they are kept for a month.
