Freedom of fear is a human right
Rule of law an obligation of the state

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1. A 42-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly killing a woman and removing parts of her body in Thohoyandou, Limpopo police said today. The man's arrest follows the murder last year of a 35-year-old woman, said Ailwei Mushavhanamadi, a police spokesperson.
   March 31, 2007
    
2. Ritual killing: Ex-guard held
   The murder apparently happened on December 9 2006, a day after the year-end party at Tsitsikamma diamond mine near Plooysburg.
   Modise said preliminary investigations were conducted, and police suspected that Sedumoeng was the victim of a ritual murder.
   March 19, 2007
    
3. South Africa looks at ritual murders
   At least 50 suspected cases of ritual murder have been noted in South Africa's far northern Limpopo Province, according to a report (...). The report follows the establishment of a provincial task team into crimes of this nature and public hearings around the province, where cases of murder for ritual purposes - also referred to as 'muti murders' for the link to traditional medicine using human body parts - are widely reported.
   (...)
   'Our people continue living in fear,' Nchabeleng said. 'They know that anything is possible at anytime.'
   (...)
   
   Ritual murders have been reported throughout the country.
   
   Last year a young woman from Limpopo survived an attack in which her lips were cut off while her boyfriend died after his genitals were removed. Some weeks ago, meanwhile, a man lost his tongue in an attack reportedly also with ritual links.
   (...)
   October 26, 2006
    
4. Muti hijack foiled
   The continuous spate of ritual murders in Vhembe is a fact. This follows after Mashudu Munzhelele (35) of Tshifudi, Munangwa village, unexpectedly overpowered suspected ritual killers who wanted to murder him for muti purposes at the Mutshundudzi River on Monday.
   August 11, 2006
    
5. The latest victim of ritual murder
   Ms Thinandavha was buried at her home village of Mulodi during the weekend. Her mutilated body was discovered at Mulodi Mountain last Sunday. Her upper lip, right handpalm, left ear and the front part of her breasts were sliced off. She was naked from the waist down and a rope was tied around her neck.
   August 2006
    
6. Another case of ritual killing
   Pretoria police are offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers of four-year-old Connie Ncube.
   In what appeared to be a muti killing, her mutilated body was found in a river in Nellmapius, east of Pretoria, in February.
   March 28, 2006
    
7. Police accused of ignoring ritual murders
   Even in a country grown accustomed to horrific acts of violence, it is a crime that still shocks. ''Muti murder'', in which human body parts are removed to be used in traditional "medicine", is increasing in South Africa - but victims' families complain that the police too often ignore it.
   March 26, 2006
    
8. In South Africa, where the government set up a Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murders after a spate of killings of boys aged between one and six in Soweto, it is estimated that at least 300 people have been murdered for their body parts in the past decade. The figure could be as high as 500 a year.
   April 8, 2003
    
9. Head cooked for battle success
   A man's head was found cut open and barbecuing on a witchdoctor's spit not far from the Christian News headquarters in KwaZulu-Natal. The traditional healer, 76 year old Mzukuzuku Dlamini, told the police that he was preparing it to provide stronger "muti" (witchcraft medicine) for a faction of a local warring tribe, the Amabomvu.
   (...)
   
   How to get a head in business
   The Mail & Guardian (October 9 to 15, 1998) had similar news (...): (...) "selling human body parts is a lucrative business in South Africa. Prices for eyes, breasts, brains or genitals range from R1000 to R10,000 - depending on the body part for sale ... most traditional healers are afraid to talk about this thriving bloody commerce." Their reputation for supernatural powers prompts businessmen to consult certain `sangomas' to help with "ukuthwala" (accumulation of wealth). The sangoma will recommend certain human body parts as ingredients to be used in brewing the muti.
   (...)
   October 30, 1998
    
10. Witchcraft and Ritual Killing
    (....)
    Some Indian businessmen and traders in South Africa and Zambia are also thought to indirectly participate in ritual killings to secure medicine that will ensure the success of their businesses. There are, of course, ways around the outright killing of someone to obtain human tissue. In Johannesburg, a White police officer at a mortuary was alleged to be supplying traditional healers with human fat, harvested from the corpses he was paid to protect (Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murders in the Northern Province of the Republic of South Africa, 1995).
    Source: David Simmons 1999

    
     

What is a muti murder?
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A 25 minutes movie on muti murders in South Africa on You Tube
An estimated 300 people are sacrificed every year in South Africa so that their body parts to be used in traditional Muti medicine. The figure could be as high as 500. Most of these are young children, tortured to death.

"It's done while she's still alive because the more she screams, the more powerful the Muti's going to be," explains crime expert Kobus Jonker, gesturing at the picture of a mutilated six year old girl. He was the first South African to acknowledge Muti murders and has set up a special police unit to deal with it. But Muti murders are notoriously hard to prosecute. "My son will never sleep in peace," laments Salome Chokwe. Her ten year old boy, Sello, disappeared when out herding. By the time she found him it was too late. His hands, genitals, tongue and brain had been 'harvested'. Most practitioners use nothing more sinister than roots and leaves to make their Muti. But belief in the power of human body parts continues to fuel a demand for the 'other' type of Muti.
Source: Journeymanpictures
November 22, 2007

Putting the spotlight on muti murders
Since the gruesome discovery of a young African boy’s torso in the Thames River in September 2001 in London, Oliver G. Becker embarked on an intensive study of the subject of muti murders. The young boy, known to Scotland Yard only as Adam, was brutally killed and slaughtered for muti purposes (...)
Becker has produced several documentaries and a scientific paper on the matter.
August 11, 2006


What is a muti murder?

"A muti murder is the killing of a person in order to use their body parts for muti – African traditional medicine. The parts will often be taken from the victim shortly before death. Genitals are often taken for fertility spells. Internal organs are often taken, as are breasts, hands and feet.

African traditional medicine is not always magical in its methods, but it's safe to assume that any method, that for instance, requires you to cut off the genitalia of a fertile man, the hands of a prosperous business rival, or remove a man's liver while his dying screams give the medicine its potency is an attempt at magic of the blackest kind.

Often the sangoma will tell the client what parts are necessary for the spell, but will leave the deed up the to the client. Money often changes hands, and a complete stranger is seldom targeted. A family member or acquaintance is preferred.

Estimates of the number of muti murders range from one per month to one per day in South Africa alone. (...)."
Source: Everything2/StrawberryFrog

 

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