From Tawanda Mangoma in CHIREDZI
The Shangani people in Chiredzi say they will use their traditional circumcision methods if Government fails to provide nurses to help thousands of men in camp for initiation ceremonies this year.

Government does not encourage traditional circumcision methods as they are deemed dangerous.

In an interview yesterday, Headman Ngwenyeni said the participants have been in camp, but the Ministry of Health and Child Care was still to deploy nurses to undertake surgical male circumcision.

“The ministry of health is letting us down,” he said.
“We have been calling asking them for the past two weeks now, but they keep making promises that their nurses and doctors will attend to the people who are at our camps.

“Surely, at this pace they must not blame us if we carry on with the programmes using our traditional methods because we are now losing patience,” said Headman Ngwenyeni.

His colleague, Headman Samu, said time was no longer on their side.

“Schools are opening anytime soon. Most of the boys in our camps are pupils and they must quickly be circumcised so that they start school when healed. These delays will surely affect our programmes,” he said.

Several young men have died in South Africa after undergoing traditional circumcision.

Chiredzi Acting District Administrator Mr Ndeya Nyede said there was a problem with the timing of the initiation programmes if they run concurrently in most villages.

“These village heads are just reluctant to take advice regarding the planning of these initiation programmes. All of them want to have people in camps at the same time and this creates a lot of pressure for the medical teams,” he said.

Mr Nyede said the programmes have also drawn a large number of participants.

“It is rather unfortunate that the high turnouts being recorded this year are as a result of participants being forced to take part in the process which headmen are reportedly demanding payment at the end,” he said.

Chiredzi District Medical Superintendent Dr David Tarumbwa said he could not push his teams to undertake multiple surgical operations when the process requires time and concentration.

“We cannot just deploy every nurse to undertake the circumcision process. We only have a few teams which were trained by PSI to undertake this very precious exercise,” he said.

“Our teams are mobile, but they cannot please the demands of all these headmen. This is a clinical surgery which requires someone to take his or her time.

“The moment we start to set daily targets for them we will end up recording serious problems which can then jeopardise the quality of our work,” Dr Tarumbwa said. He accused the headmen of competing on enrolling participants in the initiation programmes for monetary gains.

Traditional leaders in Chiredzi and Mwenezi districts recently expressed concern over the recent involvement of strangers, among them women, in their circumcision process.

They said it had grossly compromised their ChiChangana (Shangani) culture.

Between 1 000 and 3 000 youths are circumcised during this period annually. The Shangani communities are mostly under Chiefs Sengwe, Tshovani, Chitanga and Gezani in the Chiredzi and Mwenezi districts.

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