Hon Chairperson, undoubtedly the passing away of our young men is a very sad moment, especially for the families and friends, but particularly for the mothers, who experience emotional pain and sorrow. As we continue to mourn the deaths, through the grace of God Almighty may their souls rest in peace. On behalf of the MF, I offer heartfelt condolences and messages of strength, courage and fortitude.
Indeed, the promotion, protection and preservation of everyone's cultural values were suppressed during the colonial rule. We welcome President Zuma's call that an investigation be headed by a commission of inquiry, and we must allow the commission to do its work and come up with recommendations accordingly. Madiba referred to this practice, which comes from a deep cultural consciousness of communities, and, culturally, people develop a faith base to perform it. Madiba himself went through that exercise and said it was an important part of his development as a human being. So, indeed, for millions of people this is an important part of the development of their lives and therefore must get the serious attention it deserves.
Mahatma Gandhi once said that the greatest integrity in an individual is their cultural values. Therefore, traditions, faiths, cultures, rituals and religions are an integral part of any human being's life and must be respected, and the practice must be done in a humane manner.
However, somewhere along the line somebody has become reckless, negligent and careless, and whether there was money-making in the whole process, we don't know. Young people's lives are at risk, and we need to take precautionary measures. Currently, in KwaZulu-Natal, we have a very strong male medical circumcision programme which is conducted by professionals. It is an important cultural practice, and it's becoming part of the strategy of the Aids protection and prevention programme, and a huge number of youngsters will indeed undoubtedly benefit.
However, the MF cherishes the hope for the practice to be informed by a very deep cultural, religious kind of aspect for people to understand how serious it is and therefore to be disciplined and to take every precaution so that this kind of tragedy will never happen again. As we strive to do better, KwaZulu-Natal has put in place a modernised system and, in KwaZulu- Natal, the process is performed in clinics. We need to encourage more professionals to execute these cultural beliefs through medical practices.
Let us continue to entrench the frontiers of democracy with honesty and integrity, to reach greater heights so that we can deliver a safe and secure environment for all our people. I thank you.