Eddie Koch reports on a commission of inquiry into witchcraft killings in the Northern Province
CASE 1: Tshavhungwe approached Edward and asked him to find a living person from whom they could remove some parts. A friend of Edward’s suggested they should get one Nthatheni Negota (a young woman in her twenties), who used to roam around the area and appeared neglected by her parents.
One day, Edward invited Nthatheni Negota to accompany him, his wife and Tshavhungwe to a traditional dance … The unsuspecting Nthatheni accompanied the three and, while they were walking in the dark, Edward asked Nthatheni to have sex with him …
She ultimately agreed and the two went into the bush. When Edward was about to have sexual intercourse with her, Tshavhungwe appeared and grabbed the deceased by her throat. The two then cut Nthatheni’s throat and the head was severed from the body. They then cut off her breasts, the left hand and the private parts. Both legs were cut off at the knees.
As this whole drama was unfolding, Edward’s wife stood there with a plastic mielie-meal bag, in which the parts were carried. The two then threw the remainder of the body in a sewage dam at Manenu military base, where it was later
CASE 2: On the evening of February 12 1990, a group of youths gathered at a local school at Tshimbupfe village (Venda). While at the school, the group started singing freedom songs celebrating the release of President Mandela. During the celebration, a list was compiled of people who were believed to be practising witchcraft in the village.
Meanwhile, a pensioner in his seventies, called Johnson Mpuma, spent the day in the veld tending to his cattle. After work he stopped in at a local shebeen.
On his arrival there, he found four young men enjoying a drink. He ordered a bottle of beer and, as he sat down, the young men asked him to join them. After joining them, one of the young men asked him why he did not demonstrate his happiness about Mandela’s release … His reply was that he did not even know who Mandela was.
A fifth glass was poured for him and he was told that he should drink so that he could get drunk, so that when they came to look for wizards like him and when they hammered nails in his head, he would not feel anything.
Later that night, when he was already in bed, he heard a loud noise of a group of people moving towards his kraal, and he realised that the writing was indeed on the wall.
Mpuma and his wife escaped and hid in the veld, but a second man, 78-year-old Frans Mulaudzi, was attacked by the same mob and killed. The group attacked him with an assortment of instruments and pelted him with stones until they were satisfied that he was
The edited excerpts above describe just two of the scores of grisly murders documented in an interim report published this week by a commission of inquiry into witchcraft-related violence and ritual murder in the Northern
The remarkable, if horrifying, document sheds new light on an under-researched and little understood phenomenon, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 250 people in the Northern Province over the last year, and continues to affect formal politics, civic issues, policing and everyday life in the province.
“The continued frequency of witchcraft murders, if not their increase, deserves special mention. Moreover, belief in witchcraft remains as prevalent as ever,” the report says. It provides a litany of cases similar to those summarised above, and goes on to suggest causes of, and solutions to, the problem.
“People are killed ritually for financial gain or to bring luck or, in the case of rulers, for the purpose of power and authority,” it explains. “A skull may, for instance, be built into the foundation of a new building to ensure good business. The eyes of the victims symbolise vision. Blood can give vitality. Genital organs and breasts are for fertility purposes.”
Witches are frequently identified and killed, or hounded out of their villages, as a result of family feuds and civic conflicts. The report says that communal jealousy relating to the financial success or sexual prowess of a particular individual is often the factor that triggers a witch burning.
The term witch (or moloi) is applied to those people who, “through sheer malignancy, either consciously or subconsciously, employ magical means to encompass all manner of evil to the detriment of their fellow creatures”.
The report explains that all kinds of misfortune – – including people being killed by lightning, drought, personal illness and political persecution — are frequently explained as a consequence of witchcraft.
Some traditional healers, especially a growing number who have been corrupted by the financial gain that is to be derived from selling human muti or “sniffing out” witches, are singled out as a major factor behind the increase in killings.
“According to the perception of the youth, they are protecting the community, as traditional/tribal courts are no longer allowed to try people accused of practising witchcraft … A young high school student said that, ever since they killed people causing lightning, nobody has been struck by lightning.” When another young man was asked if it was morally correct to kill wizards, he replied: “What do you do when you have cockroaches in the house? You kill them.”
The report lists a number of villages in the Northern Transvaal that have been created for people accused of being witches. It notes that a popular opinion in the province holds that special places be reserved for witches who are not killed. “In Venda, some informants went to the extent of saying they (wizards) should be kept with wild animals in the Kruger National
A unique aspect of the report, one that differentiates it from numerous anthropological studies of the politics surrounding witchcraft attacks in Africa, is that it is written from the perspective of people who believe that witches, and malicious dabbling in the supernatural, do
Serobi Maja, public relations officer for Northern Province Safety and Security MEC Seth Ntai, says the problem with previous commissions of inquiry is that they were conducted by people who saw these beliefs as irrational superstitions which could be easily repressed. “These people decided to close their eyes, in the past, to something that is real. That is no way to find effective solutions to the
Maja told the Mail & Guardian that the interim report would be studied by the Cabinet, so that it could begin drafting effective regulations and laws to prevent the killings. The commission, chaired by retired Venda anthropologist Professor NV Ralushai would, in the meantime, continue its investigation.
What is to be done
about witchcraft?
The interim report of the commission of inquiry into witchcraft contains a number of “interim recommendations”, aimed at containing the spate of ritual murders and witch killings. These
* Traditional healers should be apolitical and should be governed by a code of conduct, in much the same way that members of the medical profession abide by regulations laid down by the Medical and Dental Council.
* An educational programme to “liberate people from participating in the killing and causing of harm” that results from their belief in witchcraft. This can be done through organising workshops, rallies and TV programmes. “The government could also organise a music competition, in which the composers will show the futility of witchcraft purges.”
* School syllabi, in areas where witch killing and ritual murders are commonplace, should include courses which explain that these “primitive” methods differ from more traditional and humane ways of dealing with sorcerers. These usually involve strong checks on arbitrary attacks on people accused of being wizards and result in those found guilty being banished rather than killed.
* The commission notes that existing laws prohibiting the practice of witchcraft and accusations against alleged witches, are confused and fail to distinguish clearly between the sorcerer and the witch-hunter. It urges that the law be clarified and different penalties applied to witches and those who sniff them out.
* The forced collection of money to consult a diviner to sniff out witches — a practice which encourages youth gangs, who stand to gain by appropriating some of these funds — should be made a criminal act.