Traditional surgeon sentenced to five years for the death of an initiate

A traditional surgeon has been sentenced to five years for the death of an initiative under his care.

The accused Shampion Andries Mahlangu was on Thursday, May 12 sentenced at the Witbank Magistrates Court to 24 months imprisonment or R12 000 for contravention of section 12 subsection 8 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 and five years’ imprisonment for culpable homicide.

The five years imprisonment sentence was wholly suspended for 5 years on condition that the accused is not convicted again for culpable homicide during the period of suspension.

Section 12 (8) of the Children’s Act prohibits the circumcision of male children below the age of 16 years unless the circumcision is for religious purposes or on recommendation of a medical practitioner. In this case the deceased was 15 years old.

The accused is a traditional surgeon and a teacher by profession. The accused circumcised the initiates and the deceased happened to be one of them. He circumcised the deceased and left him unattended that resulted in the deceased losing a lot of blood where he became dehydrated. The deceased was never given or offered water to drink even though he lost a lot of blood due to circumcision and the accused was not there to supervise. The deceased then died and his cause of death was hemorrhage and hypothermia, hence the court convicted the accused on culpable homicide.

The matter was successfully prosecuted by the Regional Court prosecutor S Khorommbi from eMalahleni and we congratulate him for the job well done. The NPA welcomes the sentence.

*Witbank News has in the past done articles on several similar cases.

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