Swazi Media Commentary: ritual killing

Showing posts with label ritual killing. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 June 2018

‘POLICE SET SUSPECT’S GENITALS ON FIRE’

Community police officers in Swaziland / Eswatini tortured a ‘mentally challenged’ man by setting his genitals on fire and beating him with iron rods to make him confess to committing ritual murders, a newspaper reported.

It happened at Ngogola, a remote area of Siphofaneni, the Observer on Saturday newspaper in Swaziland reported (23 June 2018). It said the man was left for dead at the gate of his homestead.

It reported, ‘The mentally challenged suspect was subjected to their unorthodox torture routines to force him to confess, where the suspect was made to sit on a thorny aloe tree, beaten with all sorts of iron rods and [they] set fire to his genitals to force him to confess to be behind the ritual killings in the area.’

It added, ‘The tortured suspect is reported to have been beaten to a pulp by the community police before he was made to confess to be behind the killings.’ The regular police have reportedly taken the suspect into care.

The media in Swaziland have been publishing lurid reports from across the kingdom of children being abducted to be ritually murdered so their body parts can be used in making muti potions that are said to bring luck. It is reported that there has been an increase in ritual killings ahead of a national election due in September 2018. Little hard evidence has been reported that the killings have actually taken place.

Thursday, 14 June 2018

FEAR OF RITUAL KILLINGS GROWS

Something close to panic has gripped Swaziland / Eswatini as the fear that children will be kidnapped and ritually murdered has taken hold.

The Swazi Observer reported on Thursday (14 June 2018) that 258 children absconded from school at Mafutseni Children’s Cup Care Point in fear of being kidnapped and killed.

It reported one of the teachers Zine Mkhwanazi told a meeting of parents children were afraid to go to the school because of an incident in May where a 16-year-old boy escaped from three knife-wielding men who had cornered him in a forest and tried to slice his throat in what was believed to be a ritual murder attempt. The boy escaped and was admitted to hospital.

The newspaper reported Mkhwanazi said what happened scared everyone, more so, because the attempt on the boy was made at a spot children pass on their way to school.

The Swazi Observer reported on Tuesday (12 June 2018) that parents were now trailing their children wherever they go. ‘It is said some of the parents even accompany their children to Sunday school, just to make sure prowling killers do not go near them,’ it reported. Parents also go with their children to school.

This has happened after reports, many unconfirmed, that children across Swaziland are being abducted and ritually murdered. Body parts are then said to be used in muti to create spells to bring good luck. There is a belief that some people are doing this to help them win seats in the forthcoming National Assembly election.

The Observer quoted one concerned parent saying, ‘Elections are a curse to some of us as that’s the period where children go missing. It’s bad that such incidents are now associated with the elections and it paints a bad picture of the country because in the eyes of the world we are known as a nation where ritual murders are rife during elections.’

Another parent said, ‘There is fear that when we let our children leave school on their own, that places them in danger.’

The Times of Swaziland reported on Thursday (14 June 2018) an alleged ritual killer was assaulted by a mob and set on fire at Mafutseni. It happened after a man made a joke that his own blood was not fit to be used as muti. A mob singled him out as a ritual killer because he appeared to have knowledge about how blood was used to make spells. It added the incident happened about a month after one of the man’s relative went missing.

Thursday, 31 May 2018

‘RITUAL KILLINGS LINKED TO ELECTION’

There are ‘widespread speculations’ across Swaziland that a number of recent abductions resulting in mutilations and killings might be related to the ongoing national election in the kingdom, the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) said.

SWAGAA said, ‘Children, both girls and boys, are especially targeted; however, this does not mean adults cannot be a target in future. For this reason, all people should remain on high alert.’

It said in a statement, ‘The fact that there are widespread speculations on whether or not these abductions are for ritual purposes linked to the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Eswatini [Swaziland] cannot be ignored.’

Swaziland has a history of abductions and ritual killings in the run-up to national elections that are held every five years. Voter registration is currently taking place and ends on 17 June 2018. The date for the actual election has yet to be announced.

In June 2017, during a voter-education workshop, Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) called for an end to ritual killings around voting time. It was concerned about reports of people mysteriously disappearing across the kingdom.

At KaLanga in the Lugongolweni constituency EBC educator Cynthia Dlamini said ritual murder reports increased during election time. The Swazi Observer reported at the time, ‘Dlamini said this was one belief driven by lunacy which tarnishes the image of the country in the process. She said the commission condemns such beliefs and called for intensive investigations against those who would be suspected of ritual killings.’

At the last election in 2013, The Swaziland Epilepsy Association warned that cases of the abduction of epileptic people always increased during elections. Mbuso Mahlalela from the association told the Swazi Observer at the time it was common for the vulnerable to be targeted and abducted. He spoke after a report that a 13-year-old epileptic boy might have been abducted for ritual purposes.

Before the election in 2008 a march by civil society groups to draw attention to ritual killings was banned by the government amid fears that it would bring bad publicity to Swaziland and might embarrass King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, who had spoken out against the practice.

The Times of Swaziland reported at the time the march had been motivated by the mystery disappearances and murders of women. Some of these had been found mutilated fuelling speculating that they were related to rituals.

Some Swazi people believe body parts can be used as ‘muti’ which is used to bring good fortune to candidates at the election and help them to win seats in parliament.

In 2008, it was strongly rumoured in Swaziland that the reason why members of the government wanted to ban discussion on the ritual murders was that some of them had themselves used ‘muti’ to get elected.

In March 2018, a campaign called ‘Don’t kill us, we are human beings too’ was launched to raise awareness about people with albinism, a group at particular risk at election time. The Stukie Motsa Foundation is using social media to dispel the false belief that people with albinism cleanse bad luck and bring fortune to people.

There have been concerns in Swaziland for years that people with albinism have been targeted and murdered. Witchdoctors use the body parts to make spells that they claim bring people good luck. Sport teams have also been known to use spells to bring them good fortune during matches. Witchdoctors’ services are especially sought after by candidates contesting parliamentary and local elections.

In January 2017, the Director of Public Prosecution’s office in Swaziland told witchdoctors in the kingdom to stop murdering people for body parts. The witchdoctors, also known as tinyanga, were advised to go to the Ministry of Health for body parts, such as bones.

During the national elections in Swaziland in 2013, people with albinism lived in fear that their body parts would be harvested by candidates seeking good luck.

Independent Newspapers in South Africa reported at the time, ‘In the past [people with albinism], who lack the skin pigment melanin, as well as epileptics have been specifically targeted, prompting the police to set up registries.

‘In 2010, the killing and mutilation of [people with albinism], including in one instance the decapitation of two children in Nhlangano, prompted panic.’

In August 2013, Independent Newspapers quoted an academic at the University of Swaziland, who did not want to be named, saying, ‘Ritual killings to achieve elected office are a natural outgrowth of a government based not on rationality or democratic principles but on superstitious beliefs.

‘The Swazi king claims power through an annual Incwala festival where a bull is brutally sacrificed and mysterious rituals occur, and this sets the tone. No one knows how office-holders are appointed in Swaziland. It’s all done in secret, without recourse to merit or any rhyme or reason, so this fuels irrational beliefs.

‘Ritual murder has long been part of Swazi life.’

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