LIMPOPO – Five suspects accused of violating graves appeared in the Sibasa Regional Court on 7 May.
The suspects were arrested in 2018 after four graves at Tshitavha and Folovhodwe villages were dug up by the police’s forensic team, and upon further investigations found that body parts had been stolen.
Read more: Lim SAPS concerned over corpse and body parts missing in Vhembe graves
The parts were thought to have been sold to traditional healers for muti-related purposes.
Read more: Second traditional healer arrested in violation of graves saga
Limpopo Police Spokesperson, Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said the five suspects were part of a bigger syndicate.
The case was postponed to 22 and 23 June.
A state witness, who is a former girlfriend of one of the suspects, confessed to helping her then boyfriend to dig up graves.
Read more: Main suspect accused of violating graves in Vhembe, arrested in George
In 2018, she apparently told the community and police that her boyfriend had started with the grave-digging in 2015 when she was only 15, and that they had vandalised graves and stolen human parts to sell.
The girl reportedly collapsed during court proceedings, and the prosecutor, Adv Rabelani Mutsinda Makhera, and Magistrate, Mashudu Munzhelele, agreed that the witness must receive professional help.
