admin
Mr Ncube (55), casts his bones in Nkulumane 11 after his shrine in Pumula East was destroyed by a mysterious fire in 2010.
The little shrine had become a crowd puller with about 5 000 people being attended everyday.
Mr Ncube visited Chronicle offices recently and said he now wants to revive the shrine to safeguard traditional healing that is “fast dwindling because of Christian practices”.
A former Agriculture teacher, Mr Ncube swapped the chalk for herbs and bones. He claimed that the country had of late witnessed an increase in the number of false prophets who thrive on manipulating people’s problems to get money.
He said traditional practices were on the verge of extinction because of Christianity.
“Christian practices are affecting traditional healing as people now go to prophets abandoning their cultural practices. But, surprisingly, those who do faith healing also consult amadlozi. This is the reason why prophets are mostly blacks. I am not criticising Christianity, but the problem is that they have turned faith healing into business.
“People now use prophecy to generalise people’s problems. Not all healers are genuine as some are now using magic to pray for people. I cannot do faith healing because I am not talented in that but other people now deceive people purporting to be healers,” said Mr Ncube, a member of the Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association.
He said if prophets were genuine, people would not be having problems because there were hundreds of self-proclaimed prophets in the country.
Mr Ncube said it was possible to combine Christian and traditional healing.
“Even in traditional healing, there are also pretenders who use witchcraft to hoodwink clients. This is why we have many accidents on the roads, the gods are angry. The only difference between traditional and Christian healing is on the way we administer our practices and as such it is possible to combine the two,” he said.
Mr Ncube also said he planned to open a traditional clinic and was waiting for processing of registration papers.
Mr Ncube said he was possessed by Zulu and SiSwati speaking spirits.
“I have not taken people to the shrine since the 2010 fire, I am going to revive it before August. I still have the powers to cure people. Some thought the shrine is no more, it is still there only that I had a few problems since that fire. People have been encouraging me to revive the shrine in a Christian way.”
Popular faith healer, Prophet Thabiso Ngwenya of the Twelfth Apostolic Church said as much as people were entitled to different views, his healing sessions were not fake as people consult him on their own accord.
“People can say anything but there is nothing like false prophecy in our sessions. I do not go to people’s places but they visit us and we have never had such complaints before. Those who want cleansing of their homesteads come and we give them ‘holy water’ which they take home or go with some servants to assist them,” said Prophet Ngwenya.
He operates from his house in Pumula South suburb and a place popularly known as emagodini, a few metres from Mr Ncube’s old shrine.
Prophet Ngwenya said he had no problems with the shrine and said he chose the site because he liked it.
A member of the residents association in Nkulumane 12, Mrs Sanele Dube, who spearheaded the expulsion of an apostolic sect from a hill in the suburb early this year, said she believed some were in the business of making money.
“You cannot deny the fact that church is now business and that most of these prophets either lie to people or use traditional methods to heal.
“Recently we had a church here which was making noise until residents complained, when we went to their site, we were shocked to find pictures of people some of whom we know pierced with needles. There were a lot of materials that are commonly used by traditionalists and can we not say that is witchcraft in church,” said Mr Dube.
Online Reporter