- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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Calls to make witchcraft a criminal offense
January 13, 2010
PhD Thesis: Traumatic Ritual Murders in Venda (2005)
By Robert Munthali
University of Pretoria (2006)
pdf-file
What is a muti murder?
See bottom of page
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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