‘My mother is a witch’

Abel Zhakata Senior Weekender Reporter
A ZIMUNYA woman was recently beaten to a bloody pulp by her grandsons who accused her of causing mysterious deaths in the family through witchcraft. Elizabeth Checha limped her way to Headman Isaac Nyamana’s traditional court where she chronicled how her three grandsons brutally attacked her saying she was the hand behind mysterious deaths in the family that have claimed more than 10 of their members.

She accused Brian, Shelton and Tendai Mutsonhi of savagely assaulting her with switches when they visited her sometime back on a mission to force her to accompany them to a traditional healer.

However, Checha was left with egg in her face after her daughter, Mercy Mukaronda, stunned the court by concurring with the trio who had beaten her up, saying she was an unrepentant wicked person.

“What you are hearing about my mother here is true. She is evil. I have never seen a woman who can hurt her own daughter to the extent that she plans and wished her dead. I am saying this in the public so that you know that I do not mince my words.”

However, narrating how she was butchered by her grandsons, Checha, said: “I was at home when my grandsons came. I suspected that they were up to something. We greeted each other and in a flush they started to question me about deaths that were occurring in the family. I told them that I knew nothing about the allegations, but they could not have none of what I said.

“I told them that if they were accusing me of being a witch who is killing people in their family they should take me back to my parents and tell them that their daughter is killing people. I also told them that I was not going anywhere with them. They started to beat me with switches all over the body. They only stopped the assault after I fell down. They left me lying on the ground and disappeared. I later walked home. I then reported the matter to the police,” she said.

One of the assailants, Brian, did not dispute calling his grandmother a witch, saying she should come out clean and solve the mystery deaths in the family.
He said they beat Checha up because she was not cooperating and had threatened them with death when they confronted her over the issue.

“The woman that you see before us is my grandmother. She is wicked. Our family members are dying mysterious deaths because of her. Our fathers have all died and we are only left with youthful elders to run family affairs. The deaths are frightening and happening more often. When we approached her we did not have the intention to beat her up, but she drove us to act the way we did because she threatened us with death. She hit the ground three times and vowed that we were next. That is when we beat her up.

We want her to reveal everything because we cannot just sit and watch when our relatives die mysteriously.”
Brian said he was prepared for everything till his grandmother discarded her witchcraft ways.

“What I am telling you today is that I am prepared to stand by it even it means being sued. Let us not try to appear as if we don’t know that there is witchcraft among us,” he said.

Headman Nyamana said they acted unlawfully by beating up their grandmother and must be fined heavily for doing so.
He said the accused persons were supposed to consult their elders over the issue and see how best to handle the issue.

He also denounced witchcraft saying those practicing it were good as murders because communities and families were being ravaged by such evil deeds.
“You wronged by taking the law into your own hands. You were supposed to follow the right channel and report your grandmother.

“It is the duty of our traditional courts to ensure that those practicing witchcraft are exposed. We have traditional healers who are good at exposing such evil practices and they can play their part when summoned to do so by the courts,” he said.

The case continues tomorrow.