45-year old Maria Ngwenya was very happy for when her son came back home from the mountain and was looking forward to getting to know the new him, but unfortunately she never got that chance.

“He came back home from the mountain last week and he seemed fine to all of us. I was shocked to receive a call from our neighbour telling me that my son had been rushed to hospital,” she said.

The boy’s father Simon Ngwenya, said: “My son spent only two days at the hospital and then he died. When we asked what was wrong, the doctor told us that he had lost lots of blood and the wound was not healing properly because he was wrongfully cut. It is very sad to lose a child just when you think everything is fine.”

Eddie Ndou, a representative from the royal house at Ngalavhani village, said: “We are truly feeling the pain that the Ngwenya family are feeling. We are grieving with them for the unexpected that has happened to them.

“We as the community leaders, we are just grateful that our people are considering taking their children to the hospitals and mountains to get circumcised. We know that getting circumcised helps our children to be in less danger of getting infected with lots of different diseases so we are very happy to see people taking care,” he said.

A home-based carer at Matavhela, Lufuno Nduvheni, said: “We are still advising parents to take their children for circumcision because it helps to decrease chances of getting infected with HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections. We know and understand that people believe in different things but we advise people to rather go to the hospitals for circumcision than go to the mountains because the hospitals are much safer than the mountains.”