Vigilantes mutilate and murder KZN gran accused of bewitching others

DURBAN – A KwaZulu-Natal family is reeling after their grandmother’s mutilated body was found in her home in KwaDambuza, Edendale. The elderly woman was accused of practising witchcraft and bewitching people in her community in the KZN Midlands.

Seventy-eight-year-old Henrietta Nzimande’s body was discovered by her daughter, Nokuthula Nzimande. The grandmother was found with a deep head wound and her ear and nose had been hacked off.

According to Nokuthula, her mother preferred to live alone and kept to herself. She said her mother barely left the house except to collect her pension.

Nokuthula said she and her mother had a hostile relationship, however, she would often stop by to check up on the elderly woman. The last time she saw her mother, Nokuthula said she seemed fine.

She said when she visited the house the next day, she found blood on the floor.

Nokuthula said she found her mother’s body in the passage. She added that whoever killed her mother had taken nothing from the home.

Residents in the area believed Nzimande was a witch and, according to Nokuthula, her mother often had run-ins with her neighbours over the allegations.

She said she was saddened by her mother’s death.

MEC for Social Development in KZN, Nonhlanhla Khoza, called on law enforcement agencies to work around the clock to apprehend Nzimande’s killer.

“These types of crimes in our province show that we have a lot of people who have lost their moral compass.

“There are vicious criminals that continue to murder our senior citizens, and rob them of their belongings, including old-age grants.

“Our people need to learn that if an old person resides alone, it doesn’t mean that he or she is involved in witchcraft. We have many of our senior citizens who prefer to be alone in their homes or are living by themselves because their relatives are working far away,” she said.

KZN SAPS confirmed that the matter was under investigation.

IOL