Culture no excuse for muti murders

There’s a quiet, almost hidden, reign of terror going on around our country: women, children and even men are afraid to walk alone in isolated areas, both urban and rural, for fear they will be abducted and murdered for ritual purposes.

As we report today, one of the current hotspots is the Limpopo province, where angry community members in various villages are starting not only to take the law into their own hands and wreak vengeance on those they believe are guilty, but also threatening to shut down services unless someone in authority listens to them.

The victims are mostly women and children whose body parts are, horrifically, often cut from them while they are still alive … and screaming.

Those who want the body parts for muti rituals believe that the screams of agony will make the “medicine” that much more effective.

Those who send out the murderers on their grisly missions believe the muti so acquired will give them power, or bring them wealth. It is said that politicians even smear themselves with human body fat in order to win votes.

It goes without saying that this is a barbaric practice – possibly made even worse by the fact that police allegedly do not take such violence seriously or look the other way …. something the police hierarchy
vehemently denies.

The problem with tackling an issue such as ritual killings is that it means wading into what could be a cultural minefield – especially with those who will defend, to the end, the idea of “tradition”. Yet, this is not culture. It is not tradition. It is a perversion of centuries-old beliefs and positive rituals.

The best way to tackle this is through education – which should start at an early age. Culture and tradition must not be allowed to hold us back from progress as a modern country.