THE traditional healers who built the slums of Marikana, Kokstad, are standing together, following the burning of their homes by a community fed up with the issue of a missing child.
It is said that six homes of traditional healers have been burnt in this area following the disappearance of Grade 2 student at Xoloxolo Primary, Lathitha Mtolo. It turns out that Lathitha disappeared while playing with her friends on February 26.
The makhosi (traditional healer), Mrs Sophazi Gwala, told It is a country that he is also sitting on one side as the public, tired of being watered, has returned several times to him, will attack him.
He said to himself, he had already seen the community have already left the house, and told him to open the gate in case the child had gone astray.
“Just on Saturday, the community came here. I contacted the police, they came, brought in a few people, and told them to look for them. They left the house upside down, they found the child, and they left,” said Mrs. Gwala.
He went on to say that in the morning of Sunday, he came back again and the community said that they will search again because a certain witch doctor has called the house and said that there is a body of a child in his house, they are preparing to take it in a car and drive it away to somewhere.
“They went in again and looked and found nothing. We don’t have this kind of car that the witch doctor said will be used to drive the child away. We are living in pain because of something we don’t know and we don’t know when we will be safe as the community has threatened to burn down my house,” he said.
He said they tried to open a case of intimidation to the police but he said if they don’t open it, he will protect them from public anger.
According to local chiefs in Marikana, who asked not to be named, homes started to be burned after the police released one of the healers, who were said to have cried for him because he smelled of para because of the loss of a child.
“The phara just disappeared from the area after the child went missing. The community, fed up with the fact that the child has been missing for a week, searched for him and found him, and asked him what he knew about the child’s disappearance? He just pointed to a healer who is a month old and has a church,” said makhosi.
He went on to say that after she became undressed, she took the child and brought it to him after he ordered her to bring it, and then he was taken away by the police who accompanied him.
“They let him go, saying that there is no concrete evidence that he knows about the loss of the child. That’s when the community burned four of his houses in different areas. The fed up community also burned other homes of other healers, saying they don’t need them in the area because they are murderers,” he said.
He told It is a country that the public protests where he sings songs that say: “Down with the traditional healers down!”
“We are sitting in a hole. We don’t even know what to do because when we ask the municipality to help us have a meeting with all the healers as well as the community, they ignore us. Even the police don’t agree to file charges against us because we are being threatened and houses are being set on fire,” explained the makhosi.
He blamed the police for letting the therapist go after being identified by the para, saying they should have continued questioning him until the truth came out.
“Instead of keeping him, they just let him go. They could keep him there, and help him to escape as they escorted him to an unknown place, where he is said to be safe,” said the chiefs who lamented that they are the only ones facing the wrath of the public.
The National Unitary Professional Association for African Traditional Health Practitioners of South Africa, Mr. Mlungisi Mlaba, condemned the action of the healer who pointed at the home of another healer, saying that the child is in his possession.
“The right way to do it is when you have been told where something like that is, you tell the family, then tell us to go to the police, we will ask them to accompany us, we will take the child out where he can be seen,” said Mlaba.
He said it was an inappropriate act for the therapist who hit the bar to point at his colleague, and then leave it like that.
“If the chief of the village goes with him where he says that something has been threatened, it is done so that the authenticity of his family will be damaged. His going with the police is done so that he can rebuke the anger of the family that has lost if the thing that came from the tree is found,” said Mlaba who said that the way it happened will cause uncontrollable trouble, there is no need.
As of press time, the police have not been available to comment on the matter and the family of the missing child has not been found.