Timely advice

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoa-ledi's message encouraging uncircumcised men to go for the cut to lessen the risk of contracting HIV and sexually transmitted diseases is timeous and appropriate

Timeous because winter is upon us and is the season during which young men enrol at initiation schools as part of their cultural passage to manhood.

But the anti-HIV message must be accompanied - as the minister has done - by a warning to initiates not to enrol in bogus schools that will endanger their lives and subvert an age-old cultural rite.

Not forgetting, of course, that there are many initiation schools that operate within the ambits of health authorities and chiefs and keep records of incident-free graduations.

These remain an apt monument to a culture that is still practised with pride by large sections of the population.