admin
These self-styled witch hunters are always imported from other regions, showing the shady nature of their operations since resident n’angas or those from the region are never hired to carry out the cleansing ceremonies.
Last week Chronicle carried a story of a Kezi man who committed suicide after he was fingered as the owner of goblins that were reportedly causing commotion at a local school, where they were allegedly molesting teachers.
The chief dissociated himself from the goings-on and said that it was illegal to carry out witch-hunting ceremonies without the blessings of the chief. Though the practice is illegal, it appears to have gone on unabated prompting us to doubt the strenuous denials by the chiefs that they were involved.
Just yesterday Chronicle reported that the so-called tsikamutandas were causing havoc in Gokwe where they were reportedly taking people’s livestock claiming that they were cleansing villages of witchcraft.
“These tsikamutandas have been here for close to a month now and are causing a lot of havoc among villagers. They are going around forcibly taking away our beasts while accusing some of us of being witches and we think something must be done to stop these people from cheating us while taking away our beasts,” a Gokwe villager was quoted as saying.
It would appear these tsikamutandas target areas where there is a weak leadership or where they know there is no chief. However, even where there is no chief, there is some form of traditional authority starting from village head to headman,and these should protect our people.
In both instances in Kezi and Gokwe, neighbouring chiefs condemned the practice saying the so-called healers were causing discord among their people due to allegations of witchcraft, while many villagers were also losing their major source of income, cattle, to these cheats who always come from outside the targeted area.
We believe it is about time the Government raised awareness among the traditional leaders on the dangers of allowing these fake healers to roam freely in the rural areas going right against the Government’s healing programme by sowing hatred and causing strife among the people.
Our fear is that some of the traditional leaders could be receiving bribes from the healers to sanction their nefarious operations in their areas. It would appear in some communities these witch hunters have quite a following but villagers should always be suspicious of such cleansing that is always being carried out without even any warranty and which cannot be verified with any authority that indeed there was witchcraft that has been removed.
We know the police’s hands are tied where communities agree and invite such people since no one would have complained but it is in the villagers’ interest to work closely with the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association, police and chiefs in weeding out this practice.
What is clear is that nobody has come to their defence in the past since even the representative associations have disowned the tsikamutandas.
Online Reporter