/ 30 October 2006

Angry mob stones ‘witch’ to death

A woman accused of witchcraft died in the Mount Ayliff hospital on Monday after being stoned by an angry mob from a local community, Eastern Cape police said.

”The community kept assaulting her when police arrived but they managed to get her away eventually,” said spokesperson Superintendent Nondumiso Jafta.

The half-naked woman was found lying on the doorstep in the Mabunzi Village outside Kokstad at about 4am on Monday.

Jafta said the woman was assaulted after she told a man she had bewitched his wife, who died recently.

She apparently lifted the skimpy petticoat she was wearing to reveal her private parts to the man. He demanded to know what she wanted.

She allegedly told him that his wife was not dead but had been bewitched by her and then offered to take him to her.

The man’s wife was buried in August.

The man roused his neighbours and the woman repeated the story to them.

”The crowd became angry and started beating her and throwing stones at her. She sustained serious injuries,” said Jafta.

The woman was taken to the Mount Ayliff hospital where she later died.

Police say arrests in the matter are imminent.

Earlier reports that the woman was doused with paraffin, set alight and had a tyre thrown around her could not be confirmed by police.

”She was just beaten to my knowledge; there was no mention of her being burned,” said Jafta.

Last year an elderly couple was killed by an mob of local residents who accused them of being involved in witchcraft.

The Umlazi couple, Robert Myeni (86) and Nomathamsanqu Qola (85) were stabbed, wrapped in plastic, doused with petrol and then burned.

Thirteen people were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal last year after they allegedly burned a couple they believed used witchcraft to kill six children.

In 2000, KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister for education Faith Gasa refused to enter her office after suspecting that witchcraft had being used against her. — Sapa