An Eastern Cape NGO is the subject of an investigation by police and the health department after allegedly having 12 underage boys circumcised.
The boys were reportedly circumcised as part of a voluntary medical male circumcision programme, which was abandoned by the provincial government earlier this year.
The department pulled the plug on the programme, which was a national project introduced in 2014 to help stop the spread of HIV/Aids, on February 5.
However, it is alleged that on April 6, TB HIV Care Association defied the directive and had 12 boys in Port Alfred undergo male medical circumcision.
The TB HIV Care Association were roped in by the provincial department of health, along with two other NGOs, as part of a plan by the national department of health to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids by conducting medical male circumcision.
However, the programme came to an end after provincial health superintendent-general Dr Tobile Mbengashe issued a letter to the NGOs to suspend the project at all 92 hospitals and 774 clinics, indefinitely. This was after traditional leaders raised concerns about NGOs promoting male medical circumcision in communities and schools instead of traditional circumcision.
Health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said: “Our surgeons and nurses at hospital continue as usual as it was before the Aids programme was launched. We have stopped the voluntary medical male circumcision which focuses on preventing Aids, due to cultural clashes.”
The April 6 circumcision at the Port Alfred Hospital is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the police, while the provincial health department has also launched an internal probe into the “serious breach” of a service level agreement.
TB HIV Care spokesperson Alison Best said they had also launched an investigation into the specifics of the case.
“But from correspondence via the department of health, it appears that consent from a parent was given for these procedures. TB HIV Care takes the informed consent process for VMMC very serious.”
Provincial police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni confirmed one case had been opened by the parent of a 10-year-old boy. She claimed no parental consent was granted.
The 30-year-old mother claimed her 10-year-old son, along with other boys, were “recruited” during door-to-door campaigns in Station Hill, Chris Hani and Nelson Mandela townships. The boy stays with his grandmother.
“His granny told me that first the officials tricked her and made her believe that it was just going to be a vaccination of children and that that it was compulsory.”
Contralesa provincial secretary Nkosi Mkhanyiseli Dudumayo meanwhile said they were grateful goverment had finally listened to their calls and abandoned the voluntary medical male circumcision programme...