Group of older boys pinned down and brutally circumcised 11-year-old boy at school toilet in South Africa.

Friday, September 4, 2026 - An 11-year-old pupil was dragged into a school toilet at break time and brutally circumcised by four older boys as he screamed in pain. 

Three stronger pupils pinned the victim down while the fourth forcibly removed his shorts in a school in South Africa. 

Then the elder boy tied a ribbon tight around his penis and produced a sharp blade and without anesthetic sliced off the pupil’s foreskin. 

The distraught boy was warned not to tell anybody what happened and was left to sit in the cubicle as he tried to stop the horrific bleeding. 

The Grade 5 pupil who was brutalised at Sinqobile Primary School in Soshanguve township 30 miles north of Pretoria limped back home without telling anyone of his ordeal. 

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. 

The distraught mother, from Tshwane, who refused to be named to protect her son’s identity, said: “He wouldn’t tell me what had 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.” 

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.” 

Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Onwabile Lubhelwana said that the school had not reported any similar circumcision attacks. 

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 2,050 pupils aged seven to 15 and has an excellent record but the mother says her son is now too traumatised to return to lessons. 

The doctor revealed to the distraught mother that the circumcision procedure was done in the same fashion as tribal initiation schools. 

He said there were no stiches after the foreskin was removed but said that a full diagnosis can’t be given until the swelling goes down.

The incident sparked outrage, with social media users describing it as “attempted murd£r”. 

One said: “This poor boy could have bled to de@th”.