An 11-year-old schoolboy was allegedly forced into a bathroom during break and subjected to a violent circumcision by four older pupils while he cried out in pain.
The disturbing attack has caused outrage in South Africa, where authorities say three boys restrained the Grade 5 learner as another carried out the assault.
According to reports, the older pupil pulled down the child’s shorts, tied a ribbon tightly around him and used a sharp blade to remove his foreskin without any anaesthetic or medical care.
The traumatised boy was allegedly threatened into silence before being left alone in the cubicle, bleeding and trying to cope with the aftermath of the attack.
The child, a Grade 5 pupil at Sinqobile Primary School in Soshanguve township, about 30 miles north of Pretoria, later struggled home with visible difficulty.
South African Police said he was too terrified of violent threats by the older boys to tell his teacher or his mother and suffered in silence.
Several days later his mother, aged 40, noticed her son was walking in a ‘strange way’ but he told her it was ‘fashionable new way of walking’.
In the morning her son who was still in agony could not get out of bed for school and finally he told her ‘something happened’ at his school.
An 11-year-old pupil was dragged into a school toilet at break time and brutally circumcised by four older boys (image shows illegal tools that have been used in initiation ceremonies)
There is no suggestion any of the tools shown here were used on the terrified primary school boy but they are examples of illegals tools recovered by police
The distraught mother, from Tshwane, who refused to be named to protect her son’s identity, said: ‘He wouldn’t tell me what happened.
‘He then showed me his swollen private parts and I rushed him to the doctor and it was then that we learned 4 pupils had circumcised him.
‘He said the other boys pinned him down in the school toilets during break and tied a red ribbon round his penis and cut off his foreskin.
‘My son said they were Grade 7 pupils and threatened to beat him up if he dared tell anyone. I have now opened a criminal case’ she said.
The mother refused to allow her son to go back to school but the police persuaded him to go back to pick out the four boys at an identity parade.
Police spokeswoman Captain Tintswalo Sibeko said: ‘A case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm is being fully investigated.
‘Our Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit are investigating and no arrests have been made at this stage’ she said.
Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Onwabile Lubhelwana said that the school had not reported any similar circumcision attacks.
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The Grade 5 pupil was brutalised at Sinqobile Primary School in Soshanguve township 30 miles north of Pretoria
He said: ‘This matter is under investigation by the South African Police Service and the outcome will determine the action we take.’
Deputy school principal George Mahlungu said: ‘We are perplexed by what happened. This school is a place where a child should be safe.’
The school has 2050 pupils aged 7 to 15 and has an excellent record but the mother says her son is now too scared to return to lessons.
The doctor revealed to the distraught mother that the circumcision procedure was done in the same fashion of tribal initiation schools.
He said there were no stitches after the foreskin was removed but said that a full diagnosis can’t be given until the swelling goes down.
Social media lit up with news of the horrific attack on the boy with Patricia Mogotlane writing: ‘It’s attempted murder. This poor boy could have bled to death.’
Sibusiso Sindane said: ‘The older boys should face the full might of the law and be charged as adults. Circumcision can only be done by experienced people not schoolboys and with the consent of the boy and his parents’.
South African tribal initiation schools hit the headlines earlier this week when it was revealed 43 boys died after being circumcised in a recent ceremony.
Gruesome circumcision tools that police recovered include eye-watering rusty spears, scissors, razor blades and crudely made cutting tools inflicting life-ending injuries on some boys and mutilation.
Thousands of boys endure the traditional initiation ceremony known as Ulwaluko twice a year in summer and winter schools in South Africa.
But there are illegal schools that use untrained ‘surgeons’ to carry out brutal and unsafe circumcisions which lead to gangrene, sepsis and death.
In 2025, some 93 boys died in agony and there were 11 amputations for some boys who survived.
The Government legally licence most initiation schools which use fully trained medical experts with approved medical care which are safer for the initiates.
This year South African police clamped down on the illegal schools often run by criminals shutting down 42 of them with 40 arrests and rescuing 180 boys.
The twice-yearly Ulwaluko ceremonies mark the passage of rite of boys to manhood allowing them to sit in on tribal meetings and to marry.
The 11-year-old attacked at school was circumcised in the traditional method used at initiation schools but it is not known what tool was used to maim him.