Thousands of boys in the former KwaNdebele homeland have begun their two-month seclusion to undergo ingoma [initiation], a "rite of passage" that every year is marred by fatalities.
Many worried parents have pinned their hopes for the wellbeing and safe return of their sons on the intervention of the Ingoma Forum, a group of doctors and other health practitioners who themselves have undergone the rite.
Thirty-one youngsters died during the initiation season in 2013 because of botched circumcisions and other negligence.
Most of the boys were from Mpumalanga's Nkangala district villages of Siyabuswa, KwaMhlanga, Verena, Kwaggafontein, Middelburg, Bethal and Evander.
Most deaths were related to preventable complications, such as excessive bleeding and exposure to extreme cold.
The Mpumalanga department of health's Musa Thugwana, who chairs the Ingoma Forum, said the most important facet of its intervention was ensuring that every initiate had a medical assessment beforehand and that parents had consented and listed medical conditions for which their children were being treated or to which they were susceptible.
Thugwana said that boys being medicated should continue to be treated while in retreat and be closely monitored for signs of complications.
He said the forum was formed in 2009 and that initiation-related deaths had decreased from 30% of the intake in 2009 to 2% in 2013.
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