Traditional healers condemn ritual killings

Traditional health practitioners from Limpopo, under the auspices of the SADC Unified Ancestors Traditional Practitioners Association, came out strongly against the use human tissue as medicine.

During a meeting on Friday, held at the clinic of the internationally renowned traditional healer, Dr Sylvester Hlati in Malamulele, traditional healers from all districts of the province, clad in their traditional garb, burnt incense while calling the ancestors to intervene and stop the ritual murder scourge.

The meeting comes at the backdrop of a resurgence of ritual murders in Vhembe, with one reported in Malamulele area where a man was found selling body parts and one in Tshitavha where a woman, Mercy Ndou, was ritually murdered. The same time the ceremony was held, Samson Majoko, the alleged Malamulele body parts seller, was applying for bail in the local magistrate's court.

Hlati said it was out of concern that they met to seek help from the ancestors. “We are very saddened. The scourge of ritual murders seems to be on the rise again. We condemned this some years ago when Vhembe was still home to ritual murderers and it stopped. There is a sudden upsurge in the number of murders related to muti killings."

He strongly emphasised that human tissue has never been prescribed for medicinal use "and those who are prescribing them are misleading people and are leading to the deaths of innocent people,” he said.

"Instead of going to court oppose bail at Majoko’s case, we are here calling our forefathers to have mercy on us. We are also here to ask the ancestors to deal with criminals without mercy and to expose them whenever they commit crime,” he said.

Traditional healer Dr MD Shirinda, who is also a Xitsonga music legend, said they were hopeful the scourge would end. “Today we have spoken with one voice, and we believe the ancestors listened to us and the senseless killing of our people will stop,” he said.

Date:15 August 2014

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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