adminLeonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
TEACHERS and pupils at Thembile Primary School in Tsholotsho had a torrid time being tormented by suspected goblins as they would see strange things at school, a court heard. Prosecutors at Tsholotsho magistrates’ court had to withdraw charges against headman Thandazani Sibindi of Muzimutsha line under Chief Siphoso who was accused of stocktheft by a villager Mitsho Ncube who was fingered as the owner of the goblins that had terrorised the school.
According to court documents, villagers had to intervene as the school had become inhabitable.
The villagers held a cleansing ceremony last year in September whereupon a self-proclaimed prophet from Wafa Wafa Zionist sect fingered Ncube, 77.
Suspecting that one of them was responsible for the suspected goblins, villagers resolved that whoever was responsible would have to be punished and pay a beast.
“On September 9, 2013, a cleansing ceremony was conducted by prophet Mhlanga of Wafa Wafa at Thembile Primary School who exposed Mitsho Ncube, the complainant, as the one responsible for strange things that were terrorising the school.
“An assortment of paraphernalia associated with witchcraft was recovered from a storeroom at his homestead,” read the State outline from the docket.
Ncube then reported a case of stock theft against headman Sibindi, 31, accusing him of stealing his cow after he was made to pay.
He had told the police that Sibindi demanded a beast worth $400, which he took from his kraal without his consent.
However, it emerged that when Sibindi and Ncube arrived at the Tsholotsho magistrates’ court ahead of the accused’s appearance, he did not steal the beast but that Ncube surrendered it on his own as per resolution by the villagers.
Ncube, who had initially claimed he was forced to admit to being a wizard and paid a beast, later confessed to prosecutors that he was hurt by losing his cow.
“I just paid using my cow under duress because I was forced to agree that I was a wizard and losing my cow hurt me,” Ncube told prosecutors, who then withdrew charges against Sibindi as he had not actually stolen the beast.
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