THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is playing an important role in safeguarding traditional male circumcision.
The municipality is known to be one of the safest areas for circumcision in the country.
Last year's summer season circumcision saw 4 543 initiates going through the system. In all that number, no injuries or deaths were reported. While the province saw 19 boys lose their lives during the winter season.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said: "The municipality working with its partner is ready and able to deliver yet again a safe circumcision season as all systems are in place to guarantee the safety of initiates."
Mniki said working closely with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Traditional Male Initiation Forum, the metro has prepared all initiation sites across the metro, and coordination and plans with the police are already in place to root out any criminal elements that happen within the initiation areas.
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He said the forum includes circumcision surgeons and their assistants, older men from different communities, the Department of Health, and the police, with the metro public health as the coordinating entity.
MMC for Public Health Thsonono Buyeye said: "The metro has done its groundwork that yields positive results year in and year out. We have also introduced an identification tag system to make sure that all circumcision surgeons and their assistants have a formal identification while on site to guard against loitering and those who use the initiation areas as criminal activity hideouts."
But he said they remain worried about the lack of support from families of initiates who have underlying illnesses, some chronic.
"Last summer alone, about 173 initiates were treated on-site due to illnesses such as severe headaches, eye infections, asthma attacks and other chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure. We encourage families to work with surgeon assistants to make sure that initiates who are prescribed specific medications take them during initiation as this exposes them to unnecessary medical attention, which could potentially lead to death," said Buyeye.
