THE case of Nhlabane boy Amahle Mbuyazi, who has been missing since early December, remains open, yet unsolved.
‘We have followed all the leads we had, including visiting the homestead of a sangoma, but no evidence of the nine-year-old boy’s whereabouts was found,’ said KwaMbonambi Detective Commander Captain Ndaba.
Although the case ran cold in late December, new information that comes to light will be investigated.
There are many theories about what could have happened to Amahle, including that his heart was stolen in a muthi murder, or that he was taken out of the country and sold as a slave.
Witnesses say he was abducted in broad daylight while playing with friends and taken to the house of a suspect in an unrelated murder trial, before being driven to a sangoma in Makhowe Reserve near Hluhluwe. Some community members are convinced he was the victim of a muthi murder so his heart could be used in witchcraft.
To put matters in perspective, traditional sangomas highlighted the difference between what they do, and witchcraft.
‘People come to me with an illness or any problem, even if they have lost something, and I help them by praying with them,’ said a sangoma.
‘When I have prayed for them, which sometimes includes praying over water the person has brought with them, I am visited by an ancestor who tells me what is wrong with them and how I can help them.’
The sangoma said it was witchdoctors who conducted muthi murders and no sangoma orders people to be killed to use body parts to fix problems.
