Former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Fikile Mbalula's comrades had mixed reactions to a newspaper article that he had not known in advance he would be taken for initiation.
A weekend newspaper report stated Maduma Ngabeni, a Gugulethu man who circumcised Mbalula, claimed that the ex-ANCYL leader and current ANC national executive member, had to be overpowered after he put up a fight when he was taken to a bushy area in Philippi last week.
Mbalula has been tasked by the party's national executive committee with investigating complaints of irregularities in the party in the Western Cape.
Former ANC MP Tony Yengeni and ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha had approached him on the Saturday, but did not inform him that he had to perform a circumcision ritual, the latest City Press reported Ngabeni as having said.
Approached about the report, Yengeni said: "I don't comment on such things."
When asked how Mbalula was, he said: "I said I don't comment."
Ngabeni could not be reached as he was in the bush, according to a relative at his house.
The report contradicted Mbalula family spokesperson Zizi Kodwa who had said there was nothing amiss and that Mbalula had wanted to undergo initiation.
Kodwa, an ANCYL national executive member, said last week that Mbalula, a married man, was to have undergone the ritual in 2004, but that his colleagues felt the timing was wrong as they needed his leadership.
Kodwa had dismissed a speculation in an earlier newspaper report about Mbalula being spirited away and said nothing untoward had happened.
Kodwa could not be reached on Sunday, but fellow ANCYL member Songezo Mjongile, who had been visiting Mbalula, said: "He (Mbalula) is undergoing the normal ritual and he is doing very well."
About the City Press report, Mjongile said: "They are just stoking. Zizi has dealt with those types of reports last week."
Initiation, which includes circumcision and teachings on manhood, usually happens when a boy reaches 18.
"We hope that by the end of the month we will welcome him back as a man," Kodwa said last week.
Mbalula's phone was on voicemail while messages left for Skwatsha were not returned.