muti – praag.org

Aunt murdered for her body parts

The community says that worryingly, this is not an uncommon occurrence

The KwaDweshula community in Umzumbe, KZN, is troubled again after the slaying of Sanathoria Mhlongo (57) who was brutally murdered last Saturday night.

Her body was discovered on Sunday after police were informed that she was missing and that bloodstains had been spotted near her house, the South Coast Herald reported.

Mehlomnyama police began an investigation, which led to the discovery of the woman’s upper torso lying in an open field approximately 20 metres from her house.

“Further investigations led to the recovery of more body parts, a knife and other exhibits near a neighbouring house,” said police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Zandra Wiid.

She added that a 19-year-old man, believed to be the woman’s nephew, had been arrested for the murder.

Community members say this has been an ongoing problem for a while now, with people in the area going missing and later being found dead with some of their body parts missing.

Dismembered body found in shallow grave

The body of a KwaZulu-Natal woman who went missing two weeks ago has been found dismembered and buried in a shallow grave, police said on Monday.

Three black men, aged between 18 and 20, were arrested on Sunday for the murder of Thandazile Mpunzi, 20, in Emanguzi, northern KwaZulu-Natal, Major Thulani Zwane said in a statement.

She was reported missing on August 5. A tip-off led to the arrest of the three men, who led them to the body.

It appeared that she had been strangled before she was cut into pieces and buried. The motive for the murder was not yet known.

The three would appear in the Emanguzi Magistrate’s Court soon.

Source: News24

The mortal danger of being white in Africa

A lucrative black market exists for the body parts of albinos, who are believed by some to possess magical powers that can bring good luck. But as police in Tanzania crack down on the grisly trade, activists in neighbouring Malawi say attacks have spiked.

Albinos are living in fear of being killed in Malawi, where their body parts are increasingly being sold for use in traditional rituals that promise to deliver wealth and power.

Three albinos – people born without pigmentation – have been killed and mutilated in the southern African country in the first two months of the year, the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) reported.

There were two albino killings in all of 2014 and one in 2013.

One woman was found in January with her head, arms and legs cut off, the government said. Police are also searching for several individuals reported missing.

“We are hunted like animals,” said APAM president Boniface Massah, who campaigns for the rights of Malawi’s 10,000 albinos.

The body parts are often believed to be sold in neighbouring Tanzania, where more than 70 albinos have been killed since 2000.

Tanzanian authorities announced in January that they would crack down on the gruesome trade. They banned the activities of witch doctors who promise to bring clients good luck and fortune to prevent them from making ritual use of albino body parts.

While the practice is condemned by the overwhelming majority of traditional healers, a lucrative black market exists for the body parts said to possess magical powers.

A set of albino body parts – including hands and feet, genitals, ears, tongue and nose – sold for $75,000 in Dar es Salaam recently, according to Tanzanian police.

But after Tanzania began its efforts to curb the practice, activists say the criminals moved to Malawi.

“Those who are in the business of selling body parts of albinos … have established a market in Malawi, because it has become tougher to do business in Tanzania,” Massah said.

Police have not commented on the matter. Several people have been arrested in connection with the recent killings of albinos but they do not include any foreigners.

The spike in the number of slayings has scared many parents of albino children to such an extent that they have taken them out of school, the activist said.

“You are no longer sure you can trust even friends or relatives,” Massah added.

Albinos face threat in many African countries, ranging from Kenya and Burundi to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.

The rights group Under The Same Sun (UTSS) lists 140 killings, as well as 219 mutilations and other attacks, against albinos in 25 African countries between 1998 and 2015.

The belief in the magical powers of albinos is based on the idea that the birth of a white child to black parents is a supernatural event.

Such a birth can be seen as a curse from the ancestors, and some east African ethnic groups – such as the Sukuma or the Maasai – traditionally killed albino children at birth, according to UTSS.

Among other African ethnic groups, however, albinos enjoy respect.

The Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin believe albinos are under the protection of the god Obatala, who is believed to have created them and to like the colour white.

Belief in magic is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawian newspapers, for instance, frequently run articles on villagers being accused of witchcraft. It is not uncommon to hear stories of politicians or businessmen having accumulated wealth and power through magical means.

Being an albino was difficult in Malawi even before the killings increased. “Being white in a society where the majority is black is not easy,” said Massah, 32, who recalls being called names at school.

Many children have worse experiences, with their fathers abandoning the family because they suspect their wives of cheating on them with a white man, he said.

There have been no known convictions in Malawi for murders or other attacks against albinos in the past four years, according to Massah. In Tanzania, only about 10 people were convicted since 2000, local media reported.

“I am a teacher. I am contributing to the development of Malawi like any other person,” said Emmanuel Mkwapatira, a 43-year-old albino who lives in the southern town of Balaka.

“Is this not enough evidence that people with albinism are also human?”

Source: timeslive

Rare cub stolen for muti

A rare animal, a jaguar cub was stolen from the Bloemfontein Zoo and allegedly used for muti, Free State police said.

Muti is a term for “traditional medicine” or witchcraft in Southern Africa as far north as Lake Tanganyika. The word is used in most indigenous African languages, as well as in South African English and Afrikaans.

Witchdoctors are paying as little as R10 000 for a human body brought to them to use in muti. Discovering the price for the illicit trade in bodyparts in 2010 has been a major breakthrough into the study of the clandestine practice.

The information emerged during the second leg of research into trafficking of human body parts, undertaken by Mozambique’s Human Rights League, supported by Childline in South Africa.

League project manager Simon Fellows called it the most comprehensive study into the trafficking of human body parts.

Muti also uses animal parts if human parts are not available. White human parts fetch much higher prices.

“You just get the R10 000 for coming with a [black] person, the muti killer reported,” said Fellows. It was reported that one person’s eyes, nipples, clitoris and tongue had been cut off for the mentioned amount.

But Fellows said the revelation was just the tip of the iceberg. In the first report, researchers received 31 people with first-hand accounts of trafficking for body parts. The first project only looked at areas in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Free State. The new project looks at the entire country.

Earlier, the Saturday Star reported that one in five people in South Africa’s rural areas had had first-hand experience of a human body part being trafficked after a muti killing. Almost all rural blacks use animals for muti.

According to Human Rights League’s research, of the body parts mentioned in their accounts male genitals, breasts, hearts, fingers and tongues were the most commonly listed.

A veil of secrecy shrouds the industry because muti killings are still perceived as a taboo subject.

“I can confirm the theft of a four-month-old baby jaguar at the zoo and the value is estimated at around R20,000,” spokesman Captain Chaka Marope said.

“The baby jaguar was stolen two weeks ago and traces on the premises indicated that it might have been killed there and taken away. According to information, it is suspected that they might have used it for muti purposes.”

He said investigations continued and no arrests had yet been made.

Tanzania: ‘Albinos killed like animals’

In the rural areas of Tanzania, men, women, and children with albinism–a lack of pigment that makes them appear glaringly white–are waging an extensive human rights campaign against communities who routinely attack them for their hair or body parts, used in potions to attract wealth and good luck.

As BBC explains, the tradition of cooking albinos into potions is not a new one in Tanzania, and the parents of albino parents are forced to fear that, at any minute, a band of men may kidnap their children to sell to wealthy sectors of society for use in witchcraft.

It is estimated, the BBC notes, that 30,000 albinos live in Tanzania. Within that population, the number of violent attacks resulting in death in recent years is alarming: more than 70 albinos killed for their skin and hair. Of those, the BBC reports that only ten convictions have occurred, which activists attribute to the fact that well-connected and wealthy people were behind the attacks.

One activist, Mashaka Benedict of the Sengerema Albino Society, tells BBC that educated and wealthy people in rural areas are the greatest threat to albinos. “How can a poor man offer $10,000 [£6,300] for a body part? It’s the businessmen and politicians who are involved,” he alleges, noting the lack of logic in the claim that albinos bring money and good luck. “If that’s the case, why are we not rich?”

In May, one of the few cases of justice regarding albino killings made it to court in Tanzania. Two men were arrested for hacking an albino woman to death and taking her left leg, two fingers, and a nail from one of her thumbs. The men were witch doctors, and that case was the first of its kind since February 2013. Officials responded to the outrage in the albino community by telling the BBC that witch doctors cannot practice without a certificate from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which–of course–prohibits murder for the sake of herbalist tradition.
The most dangerous year for albinos in Tanzania has been 2014.

Following the May killing, August went on record as one of the most violent months for albinos in years. As Vice notes, within weeks of each other, a 15-year-old girl lost half her arm to attackers working in the service of a witch doctor, while a man was killed for defending his albino wife as attackers took away half her left arm. The three men who attacked the teen girl were arrested. A witch doctor was reportedly offering up to $600 for the girl’s arm.

Few outside Tanzania’s albino community have done much to help prevent these attacks. Police tell the BBC they have tried to prevent them and raise awareness against killing albinos, but their public service announcements and government decrees rarely get to the rural interior of the nation. At least one foreign nation, Turkey, has committed money to the fight to protect albinos in Tanzania–both from witchcraft-based attacks and from the heightened health risks a lack of pigment brings them in a hot African nation.

Source: Breitbart.com

Human remains found in suitcase

Erasmia police in Gauteng have started an investigation after decomposed human remains were found in a suitcase on Wednesday morning (1 October).

Spokesperson Constable Tumisang Moloto said police were called to the R511 road in Erasmia at 07:30 by a man.“On arrival, the man said one of his employees discovered a grey suitcase while busy on maintenance duties for Telkom. We found decomposed human remains inside the suitcase,” he said.

The remains were taken for forensic examination to determine the cause and date of death.“

We appeal to anybody with information about the remains to contact the nearest police station,” Moloto said.

Woman’s missing head found

On Monday 18 August 2014, at approximately 08:30, police received a call of a decapitated body at the Shallcross Stadium, Chatsworth and immediately responded to the scene. On arrival they found a body of a woman who had been murdered. She was identified as Desiree Murugan (37) who resides in Chatsworth. A case of murder was then registered at Chatsworth SAPS for further investigation.

A crack team of Detectives under the Commander of Colonel Bongani Biyela was assembled. The team worked around the clock and assured the deceased’s family that they will recover her missing head and arrest the perpetrators before the end of the week. On Thursday 21 August 2014, at approximately 16:00 members of the Chatsworth Serious and Violent Crimes Task Team detained six suspects at Chatsworth including a woman and a traditional healer. After further investigation the missing head was located in Imfume on the south coast on Friday, 22 August. The six suspects aged between 18 and 32 years will be charged for murder and are expected to appear in the Chatsworth Magistrates Court on Monday 25 August 2014.

“I want to congratulate Detectives at Chatsworth for breaking open this case so swiftly. It is shocking that a woman has been killed in such a barbaric manner while we are celebrating women’s month. Even more disturbing is that a women was involved in this brutal murder. We will ensure that we do everything that is within our own control to bring the culprits to book,” said Provincial Commissioner of KwaZulu-Natal, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni.

Dismembered body of child found at Church

An angry black mob tried to burn down a church on Monday after the dismembered body parts of 4-year-old Lungisani Ntuli were found in a room on the property.

The volatile community of Ncotshane village in Phongolo, northern KwaZulu-Natal, set fire to a thatched cottage at St John’s Church.

Police stopped them setting fire to the church, and were stoned by the mob.

Lungisani went missing at midday last week Wednesday, and his body parts, the torso and an arm missing, were found on Saturday in the cottage.

Local ward councillor Jackson Mkhwanazi told the Daily News he had been informed by residents of the area that police, deployed to the area to monitor the situation, had clashed with the community before the church was burned.

“People just went on the rampage, throwing stones at the police, who had been preventing them from burning the church,” said Mkhwanazi.

The community apparently suspected the church priest had murdered the boy.

Lungisani’s uncle, Sakhile Ngubane, on Monday said the boy had been looked after by his grandmother while they were at work.

He said Lungisani had been playing with his friends outside, and had gone home to take off his shoes and went back again to play.

When it was time to eat, Lungisani could not be found.

He said the older children looked for the boy and said they were told he had been taken by a man selling sugarcane in the area, whom they identified as being short with dreadlocks.

“Other kids said the man called the boy and promised to buy him sweets. Two other kids who were playing (at) a sport ground said they saw the child walking with the sugarcane man. They called the boy over, but the man instructed the boy to stay with him,” he said.

Three appear for eating dog while still alive

Two black foreigners and a South African woman appeared in the Klerksdorp Magistrate’s Court for allegedly eating a dog while it was alive.

Inspector Suzette Kotzé of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from the Stilfontein branch in North West said on Thursday a medical report showed that the animal had not been not dead by the time its head was cut off.

“The dog’s head was cut off with a serrated knife, and it was put in their fridge for consumption later. When I got there, there were already cut pieces of the dog’s meat in the pot.”

Police were alerted and the three were arrested for animal cruelty.
Two other dogs on the premises had been moved by the SPCA.

Kotzé said the Nigerian men believed that dog meat could prevent diseases like malaria.

“They also believe that by eating dogs, they cannot get attacked by witches, or be poisoned,” she said.

The three appeared in court on Wednesday and were granted bail of R2500 each.

The two foreigners were ordered to report to the police station three times a week, and to hand in their passports.

Amcu miners eating human flesh for muti commission hears

“We took some of the flesh of the security [officer]. It was to make our muti strong.”

This was one of the confessions made by Mr X during his first day of testifying at the Marikana commission on Thursday.

Mr X, who was one of the striking miners at Marikana in 2012, is under police witness protection and his long-awaited testimony is now being heard in-camera.

While his evidence was being led by Advocate Frank Mathibedi, who represents the South African Police Service (SAPS), Mr X told how they took pieces of flesh from one of the Lonmin security guards who was killed by the striking miners on August 12 2012. They did this on the instruction of inyangas (traditional healers) to make the muti, used during the rituals with the strikers, strong.

According to Mr X, the muti and rituals were to protect the strikers. “An inyanga would make people brave, who would lead the warriors,” he told the commission through an isiXhosa interpreter. “The inyanga was going to make us not subject to being shot [and] lock the fire arms if we’re being shot at.”

Upon being shown a photo of the inyangas’ rag with lions printed on it, Mr X slowly started singing a song the strikers made up while on the koppie taking part in the rituals. “The lion from Bezana, the lion that eats people,” he sang in his low, husky voice. The significance of this song has not yet emerged.

A “committee” of 15 people were chosen by the strikers to undergo these rituals. It was these 15 who were the leaders of the strikers, and responsible for conveying messages between the inyangas and other strikers.

March to NUM
When questioned by Mathibedi on why the mine workers marched to National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) offices on August 11 2012, Mr X insisted that “we had gone to kill [them]”.

Mathibedi referred to three instances where other mine workers testified to other reasons why they had marched to the NUM offices, namely to ask them why the union was preventing the mine workers from talking to Lonmin management; and to deal with allegations that strikers had been assaulted and forced to go to work by NUM officials while they were on strike.

But Mr X remained insistent that the reason they marched to the NUM offices was to kill the people inside. “We were armed, Mr Chairperson, with pangas and spears. We were going to kill [them] in the office,” he said.

Initial meetings
Mr X also spoke about the initial meetings held by the mine workers on August 9 and 10 2012 to discuss their wage demands and plan of action with each other.

It was on August 10 that miners marched “peacefully” to the offices of Lonmin management to make their requests known, by writing their wage demands on a piece of cardboard.

Mr X told how after 15 minutes a “white man” – one of Lonmin’s management – emerged from the office. “He said the demands would be addressed by the union in 2013, and that is the agreement with the union. [He said] go back to work [and that] our strike is illegal.”

The miners then decided they would take action against those miners who returned to work and would also take steps against the refusal of Lonmin to address their wage demands.

Objection
The testimony of Mr X got off to a slow start, as technicians fine-tuned the video link through which he is testifying, but also due to a lengthy objection by Advocate Dali Mpofu, who represents the injured and arrested mine workers.

Mr X, a miner under police protection, has testified about removing “pieces of human flesh” from a murdered security guard to make their muti stronger.

They did this on the instruction of inyangas (witchdocters) to make the muti, used during the rituals with the Amcu-strikers, strong.

The significance of this song has not yet emerged.

When questioned by Mathibedi on why the mine workers marched to National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) offices on August 11 2012, Mr X insisted that “we had gone to kill [them]”.

Mr X’s testimony continues on Friday.

Source: M&G

Cannibal a ‘very nice man’

Cannibal was polite, well-spoken and a ‘very nice man’.

An alleged cannibal accused of killing a Gugulethu man and eating his heart with a knife and fork, cried in court.

Andrew “Master Benson” Chimbozo, 34, appeared in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. His bail application was postponed until next month, and he was referred to the district surgeon to determine if he needed mental observation.

Chimbozo, a black Zimbabwean who lives in Langa, visited Nomonde Tshabalala in Gugulethu on June 10, and gave her money to buy liquor at a local shebeen.

It is alleged that while she was gone he stabbed her partner Mbuyiselo Manona, 62. Police arrived to find him eating Manona’s heart with a knife and fork.

On Thursday, Chimbozo emerged from the holding cells to the jeers of a packed public gallery.

Chimbozo cried silently throughout the brief proceedings and did not utter a word. As he turned to face the public benches on his way back down to the holding cells, disparaging comments from the crowd were audible.

A legal aid consultant remarked that after spending some time with Chimbozo, she felt sorry for him. She said he was polite, well-spoken and a “very nice man”.

Outside court, Letisha Vapi was coming to terms with the idea that the alleged cannibal was her niece’s partner.

Linetti Vapi, who has been in a relationship with Chimbozo for two years, is in hospital with tuberculosis.

Her aunt said Chimbozo had always treated her well, and visited her in hospital every day. “Even the day he killed somebody, he went to hospital first,” Letisha said. “He treated Linetti as a lady. He gave her everything. We were surprised when we heard about this.”

Source: IOL

Albino woman murdered ‘for potions’ in Tanzania

Two witch doctors have been arrested after an albino woman was found murdered and mutilated in Tanzania.

Police in the Simiyu region said the 40-year-old victim was murdered overnight earlier this month and the attackers had hacked off her left leg, the index and middle fingers of her left hand and part of her left thumb.

Photographs of the murder scene outside her home were too graphic to publish.

People with albinism are often subjected to violent attacks in the country, where they are known as the “zeru zeru” or ghosts.

The condition is heavily stigmatised and families who see it as a curse have known to kick relatives out of their homes.

But sufferers are also a target for traditional healers, who harvest body parts to make potions for wealth, success and even election victories.

Albinism campaign group Under the Same Sun said the latest victim was the 73rd person with albinism to be killed in Tanzania since the year 2000 and 67 others have suffered violent attacks during the same period.

The group’s founder and chief executive, Peter Ash, said: “The life of yet another person with albinism has been snuffed out.

“[The woman] was mutilated and violated in the most barbaric way, because of the fatal discrimination people with albinism face in Tanzania.

“Her screams must rouse the international community to demand the Tanzanian authorities locate and punish her killers to the fullest extent of the law.

“Anything less is a flagrant miscarriage of justice, perpetuated on the most vulnerable.”

The two arrested witchdoctors, a 45-year-old man and 52-year-old woman, were reportedly known in the victim’s village and police are also hunting for her boyfriend.

Police said the woman had two children and had sent her eight-year-old daughter to a witch doctor on the day of her murder for herbal medicine to treat her backache.

The healer reportedly told the girl not to return home to her sick mother because it would stop the “medicine” working and instructed her to stay with her aunt.

That night, the woman was murdered and her grossly mutilated body was discovered outside of her home by her niece the next morning.

Under the Same Sun is campaigning for better protection for people with albinism in Africa and wants to see witch doctors banned as they claim current regulation is not working.

The group is concerned that attacks will increase in the run-up to elections in October, when the demand for potions made from albino body parts is expected to increase.

Killings have been less frequent in recent years and the Tanzanian government, which has one albino MP, has been trying to address the problem.

Source: The Independent

Human limbs found in bakkie

A Lesotho national accused of chopping up two people and boiling the heart of one of them is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

Lehlohonolo Joseph Scott, 26, is charged with two counts of murder and one of escaping from custody in Lesotho. He faces extradition to Lesotho.

According to an affidavit by Lesotho Director of Public Prosecutions Leaba Thetsane, Scott, and his mother Malehlohono Scott, are charged with the murders of Moholobela Seetsa, 13, and Kamohelo Mohata, 22.

Seetsa was cycling on January 11, 2012. He never returned to his home in Koalabata village. Various body parts were found in a ditch a few days after he was reported missing.

Mohata, a first-year student from the same village, disappeared early in July 2012.

After an SMS was sent to his parents saying that he had gone to South Africa, police were tipped off about the Scotts’ alleged involvement.

When they visited Malehlohono Scott’s house, they found two arms and a leg in the back of a Corsa bakkie and testicles behind the seat.

Lehlohonolo Scott allegedly pointed out a knife that was used to stab Mohata, a wire used to strangle Seetsa, and a pot in which Seetsa’s heart was apparently boiled. – Sapa

Eleven human foetuses found at taxi rank

Eleven human foetuses have been found in a bucket at a taxi rank in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape.

SABC news reports Lieutenant Nkosikho Mzuku said taxi commuters alerted police to the remains.

No one had been arrested by Wednesday evening.

According to the report, there has been speculation that the foetuses could have originated from a local clinic.

Source: Sapa