Boys in one of South Africa's biggest townships, KwaMashu in Durban, are set to undergo virginity testing, a controversial custom which is widely carried out on girls in KwaZulu-Natal
Female virginity tester Nokulunga Majola is one of the traditionalists pushing for virginity testing to be extended to teenagers and unmarried men in the township.
"We are trying to find more men in the community to conduct the tests on boys as well," she recently told a Sapa team visiting the area to find out more about female virginity testing.
The controversial move received its strongest backing when a well-known campaigner for the return to traditional customs, Reggie Khumalo of Isivivane Sama Siko, a body promoting African traditional cultures, offered to train elder men to perform the tests.
Khumalo said he was tested as a boy and that is how he learnt the method.
"It is already being done in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, and we are planning to expand to KwaMashu this year."
The boys would have to volunteer to be examined by several testers in a group.
Teenage boys in Madadeni on the North Coast, Ixopo on the South Coast and at Hlanganani, Bulwer on the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands had been undergoing the tests for years, said Khumalo.
"These test are done on a monthly basis and are to help young boys and young men to save themselves from sexually transmitted disease."
When asked about the test procedure, he said that was an old tradition and people knew about it.
"Young boys also have hymen, white lacy skin on the foreskin... if the foreskin on the penis slips away easily, it means that the hymen is gone.
"If the foreskin is sore and hard to move, then it means he is still a virgin," Khumalo said.
Other methods include checking for a certain vein on the penis — if it can still be seen, it means he is either still a virgin or that he has never slept with a virgin before.
"The only time that the vein can disappear is when a boy sleeps with a virgin because her vaginal opening is still tight," he said.
"If a boy urinates straight up into the air, he is a virgin. If the urine sprays, he has had sex before."
Khumalo said expert male virginity testers could determine virginity by looking at the colour of the knees. If a man's knees are dark, he is not a virgin.
When approached for comment, Linksfield clinic gynaecologist Dr Merwyn Jacobson disagreed with all of Khumalo's male virginity tests.
"There is no scientific basis for this but I am open to education.
"Men don't have hymen and what happens if a guy masturbates ... it makes the foreskin looser," Jacobson said.
He said a lot of children derived comfort from masturbation. If a boy masturbated from a young age, the foreskin would most probably be loose.
"Some men are very hygienic and retract the foreskin to clean the penis—they are very diligent with cleaning under the foreskin and get rid of those secretions then the foreskin will also slip back easily."
He said he was not particularly aware about the white part around the foreskin that Khumalo explained as the hymen. “I am not aware of any vein that disappears with use — and then once again, would it not disappear with masturbation as well?" he added.
Jacobson said the way a man urinates would depend on anatomic variation.
"You don't have to have sex on your knees — there are many different positions like on the back or standing." he said. Former Medical University of SA (Medunsa) head of Medicine, Cardiology and Specialist Physician Professor Patrick Mokhoba said there was no way possible a boy's anatomy could be tested for sexual experience.
"Males have no hymen," he said.
He said that a young man's stream of urine is sharp and straight whereas in older men it is weaker and not sharp. "Old men's prostate glands become enlarged with age and it causes a blockage in the stream. The only vein on the penis is the one that becomes visible only with erection."
When Khumalo was told about the doctors' views, he reacted: "Forget about doctors. They don't know what they are talking about. If they say the boys don't have hymen, what do they call the white part around the foreskin then?"
