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Mr Kadhela (with beard)

Patrick Chitumba: Features Correspondent

Can a self-confessed witch be rehabilitated? This is the question that is on the minds and mouths of villagers in Mhokore Village, Chief Njelele, Gokwe North following the confession by a village head, Mr Jorum Kudhela, that he killed his neighbour’s three children in revenge for his three chicks which had been killed by one of the children.

Mr Kudhela has since been stripped of the village headmanship by Chief Njelele. At the same time, his church – the Apostolic Church – has excommunicated him and he now casts a lone figure because his wife also blames him after their four-year-old child died mysteriously a few weeks ago.

The child died after Mr Kudhela forced him to urinate and remove a healing peg left stuck in the middle of his premises by a tsikamutanda during a cleansing ceremony.

The ceremony was conducted after Mr Kudhela confessed before Chief Njelele that he possessed juju and goblins which he had allegedly used to kill his neighbour Philip Makiwa’s children aged two, four and 10 years old respectively.

After the cleansing ceremony, the tsikamutanda left a peg stuck into the ground and sternly warned him not to tamper with it since it was smeared with muti to protect him from repossessing his black magic.

Mr Kudhela thought the warning by the tsikamutanda was an empty threat and instructed one of his sons to remove the peg. When he tried it, he mysteriously died.

As a result, Mr Kudhela is an unwanted man at his home and in the community and Chief Njelele said he could assist in his rehabilitation. Mr Kudhela told Chief Njelele’s traditional court that he had reformed.

“I am willing to change and work well with fellow villagers,” he said

Chief Njelele fined him two beasts before telling him that he would summon witch-hunters to cleanse the village and his family.

The chief said he could not chase him away from the village saying: “Where will he go in Zimbabwe and find no people? Rather we work with him because he is willing to change. We will continue monitoring him so that he changes totally. Since the village doesn’t want him, I stripped him off the village headmanship.”

However, for Ambuya Phobie Makiwa, life will never been the same since the passing on of her grandchildren – Samuel (5), Miriam (2) and Meladine (3). Meladine was the first to die.

Mrs Makiwa (79) said in her own opinion, justice could have been served if the formal courts had tried Mr Kudhela.

“I believe real justice lies in the courts of law and not the traditional court as we have experienced. He confessed to killing my grandchildren and was made to pay a fine of two beasts and is walking scot free,” she said with tears flowing down her cheeks.

The tsikamutanda, who cleansed Mr Kudhela’s homestead and goes by the name Sekuru Mhlanga, said he came at the invitation of Chief Njelele, adding that villagers should not hide behind the church to commit witchcraft.

“We have cleansed his homestead and if he attempts to use juju or goblins again, he will die. Witchcraft is here in this area and we are here to cleanse the people,” he said.

As Sekuru Mhlanga brags about his cleansing powers, he is not aware that it is an offence according to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for anyone to indicate that someone is a witch?

In Zimbabwe, witchcraft is still common in rural areas. Hardly a week passes without a local report or newspaper story on the practice. The country lifted the ban on the practice of witchcraft, repealing colonial-era legislation that made it a crime to accuse someone of being a witch or wizard.

The new law recognises the existence of the supernatural and effectively legitimises many practices of traditional healers, but only if they are used for good.

However, according to the Witchcraft Suppression Act 9-19 any person who imputes to any other person the use of non-natural means in causing any disease in any person or animal or in causing any injury to any person or property, that is to say, who names or indicates any other person as being a wizard or witch shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding Level Six or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

The chief said he had reported the matter to the police who, however, said there was no evidence that Mr Kudhela had killed anyone. A prominent Gweru lawyer, Mr Anold Sakuinje, said there was a missing link between the traditional courts and the formal courts. He said for Mrs Makiwa’s case to have merit in court, there should be a causal link between the death of her grandchildren and the actions by Mr Kudhela which he said were difficult to prove scientifically.

“There is a missing link between the formal courts and the traditional courts. Formal courts rely on the statute while traditional courts are custom based.”

Mr Sakuinje said Section 99 (1) of the Code reads: “Subject to this section, any person who groundlessly or by the purported use of non-natural means accuses another person of witchcraft shall be guilty of indicating a witch or wizard and liable.”

“Subsection 3 reads that it shall not be a defence to a contravention of subsection (1) involving the purported use of any non-natural means for the person charged to prove that the person he or she accused actually engaged in any practice commonly associated with witchcraft, but the court may regard such circumstance as mitigatory when assessing the sentence to be imposed.

“What this whole thing therefore means is that the tsikamutandas are committing a crime since they are using supernatural powers to accuse people like Mr Kudhela of witchcraft.”

The late University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor and sociologist, Professor Gordon Chavunduka, in a paper titled, “Witchcraft and the Law in Zimbabwe” said:

“There is conflict on the subject of witchcraft between the traditional courts and the formal courts.”

In the paper by the late professor, traditional courts agree that witches exist while the formal courts say witches do not exist.

“Traditional courts, as I have already pointed out, accept the view that witches exist. In the past, once an individual was found guilty of practising witchcraft, he or she was sentenced by the court. The sentence took various forms. In extreme cases the witch was beaten or even killed. Other witches were ordered to leave the village and had their houses destroyed. Ostracism was the mildest form of punishment. Some witches was cured. In such a case a doctor was ordered to neutralise or eliminate the evil spirit that possessed the witch,” the paper read.

And the question will linger in the minds of the villagers in Njelele area, will Mr Kudhela be rehabilitated, will he be cleansed from performing witchcraft acts in the area? And how long will the tsikamutandas go on accusing people of being witches before the long arm of law catches up with them?