Traditional healer charged with murder after helper finds employer in pool of blood

A traditional healer has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a Free State domestic worker has been left traumatised. She is said to have discovered her 75-year-old employer’s dead body in a pool of his own blood on Thursday morning when she reported for duty.

She quickly alerted emergency medical service personnel, who immediately certified him dead on the scene. The emergency medical service personnel were able to establish that he had sustained a wound to the head that they suspected was caused by being bludgeoned with a blunt object.

Police then arrived at the scene and a case of murder was registered.

According to police reports, preliminary investigations led to a house in Majwemasweu.

Three individuals and the owner of the house, who is a traditional healer, were approached and questioned. The house was then searched and a cellphone belonging to the deceased as well as an unlicensed .22-Star pistol was found and seized.

Traditional healer found with unlicensed firearm

It was the traditional healer that was found in possession of the unlicensed firearm.

The three arrested suspects, aged 21, 23 and 31 and the traditional healer, 38, were immediately arrested.

They are facing charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and murder. They will appear in the Brandfort Magistrate Court on 23 January 2023.

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Meanwhile, in a separate incident, in Bloemfontein, police arrested a 31-year-old man on the same day for the murder of an individual known as Chukwiebuka Nwanya.

Victim killed execution-style

Chukwiebuka was killed execution-style with one of the gunshot wounds on the side of the head above the ear.

The 31-year-old suspect was arrested by a dedicated task team from Parkweg. The search team first visited the suspect’s address in Langehovernpark and learned that he had moved out.

They had managed to gather enough information though to trace him down which resulted in the arrest. The suspect is expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court soon.

In Durban, justice was served when murder accused, Jabulani Lethukuthula Nsibande (22) and Siphesihle Khathi, 24, were both sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional 15 years after they were found guilty by the Ntuzuma Regional Court.

The men had murdered Thulani Raphael Mkhize, who was 41 years old at the time, while he was walking along Linda Nzama Road, next to Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu on the morning of 5 June 2020. They attacked him with knives, stabbing him multiple times.

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*Compiled by Devina Haripersad