Ideas

The state couldn’t care less about circumcision-school massacres

17 December 2019 - 08:00 By justice malala
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A young man applies white clay during a traditional initiation process. Halfway through this summer's circumcision season, eight initiates have died in the Eastern Cape.
A young man applies white clay during a traditional initiation process. Halfway through this summer's circumcision season, eight initiates have died in the Eastern Cape.
Image: Image: AFP/Mujahid Safodien

Unless there’s a racial tinge to it and some political capital to be had, our politicians do nothing about the deaths of poor rural black boys at traditional circumcision schools.

The truth is the state is incapable of stopping these easily stoppable murders, just as it is incapable of providing electricity to its people, despite knowing we have had an electricity problem in the country since the mid-2000s.

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