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Traditional healers and businesspeople who hire peo-ple to commit murder for rituals are equally guilty of mur-der and should be charged with incitement, a senior official in the Attorney-General’s Office has said.
Chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura was responding to recent public outrage that n’angas involved in ritual-related murders were getting away scot-free while their clients were charged.
Mr Mutangadura said incitement to commit murder, where the actual murder has been committed, attracted a sentence not very different from murder itself.
The same concept applies to anyone who helps someone commit rape – both are charged for the crime.
The issue of ritual murders sparked debate following the recent sentencing of a Karoi man to death for killing his nine-year-old son and selling his blood and an ear for Z$40 million in 2007.
It emerged in the trial that the blood and ear were given to three men who wanted to use them for rituals as per a n’anga’s orders. Bigknows Wairosi was sentenced to death but his three other accomplices and the traditional healer were not prosecuted.
Chief law officer Chris Mutangadura said all the people who participated in the murder were liable for prosecution.
It was proved that the three men offered Wairosi transport for the purposes of killing his son and one of them actually gave him an iron bar that was used in the murder.
Mr Mutangadura said, “If a n’anga or any other person assists in the commission of murder, he or she is equally guilty of the same offence.
“If there was enough evidence that the three men offered transport and gave the murder a weapon to kill, then they are also guilty.
“If a n’anga advises a client to bring blood and certain parts of a human body, knowing the client has to take human life, then he is also guilty of murder.
“But in most cases there is inadequate evidence to prove the n’anga’s involvement.
“At times the people who pay for such murders, like the three men in the Wairosi case, are strangers and it is difficult to locate them after the incident.”
Harare lawyer Mr Advent Tavenhave said it was difficult to convict a n’anga of murder in such circumstances.
He said they can only be charged as accomplices and even this would be hard to prove.
“When a n’anga gives advice, he or she has not instructed someone to kill. It is up to the client to take the advice or not. The participation of a healer becomes difficult to prove and in most cases they are acquitted.
“Sometimes the law lacks morality. It does not have anything to do with fairness,” said Mr Tavenhave.
Another lawyer Mr Muchivete Hungwe said some businessmen who send people to kill for rituals have a lot of money and the killer protects them.
“At times the rich businessmen send poor men to kill and promise them lots of cash.
“The killers, upon arrest, do not disclose who sent them. This is because some undertake to look after the killer’s family while he is in prison, paying legal fees and bail.
“Once they are protected, the police have any basis to arrest anyone else,” he said.
Online Reporter