Stop muti-murders now

One of the most despicable elements of Swazi society is one that’s almost never talked about – the ritual mutilation and murder of human beings to acquire supernatural ‘ingredients’.

We call these muti-murders, although the term ‘muti’ itself does not connote good or bad magic – just magic.

People who are born with albinism are particularly vulnerable to ritual murders but everyone is a potential victim and, when bodies start turning up with mutilations, the average Swazi will just shake their heads, shrug and ascribe it to a ritual killing. The worst part, of course, is that pieces of human flesh used for muti are usually removed from the still-living victim.

Studies in East Africa, where muti-murders are even more rife, have revealed that the primary drivers of this trend are aspiring politicians and businessmen who have so little confidence in their own abilities that they think they need supernatural help. Anecdotal evidence suggests this may also be the situation in Swaziland. Certainly, any mutilated body found during election time, such as the body of Samkeliso ‘Coach’ Mkhabela, who was found floating in the Mbuluzi missing an ear and his tongue, is popularly ascribed to ritual murder (as an aside, it was five days before anyone thought to look for him; this is why it is so important for people to notify their families of where they are whenever they go out).

It is long past time that the nation stamped out this evil practice. The police should have a special unit to go after muti-murderers, just as they do for armed robbers and human traffickers. These killings need to be identified, plotted and correlated so that the nation has some idea of how bad the situation is, rather than assuming that every mutilated body is the result of a ritual killing. Then they need to be stamped out by imprisoning all those involved, whatever their position in society. The public does not deserve to fear for their lives and those of their loved ones without good cause, just because someone feels inadequate to achieving their dreams.

HIV: Your turn now

How bad is the culture of dependency in Swaziland? Well, in one extreme example of how we expect government to provide everything for us, we have HIV/AIDS. At the farewell of former NERCHA director Derek von Wissel, he took the opportunity to plead with the nation to get with the programme: "There is nothing government can do about what you do in bed. It is not about what government can do but what we the people can do to end this pandemic," he said. He’s right.

Surveys show that almost all Swazis know what HIV is and how to avoid it (just follow the ABC’s – Abstinence, Being faithful and using Condoms). Government provides Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and one of the best Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCMT) the world has ever seen.

Countries from around the world have been pouring billions of dollars into the nation for 20 years to assist us, some even advocate voluntary mutilation as a prophylactic – and still we have the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world.

Largely as a result of HIV/AIDS, less than one quarter (22 per cent) of our children are brought up by both their parents, and over a third live only with their mothers while another third grow up with neither of their birth-parents around 38 per cent and 34 per cent respectively).

The country is turning into an orphanage. It’s up to us to do our part.

COMMENTS:

- As long as people are appointed into plum political positions based on favour instead of merit, ritual murders will not stop. It is our culture that's promoting ritual murders. We need to adopt meritocracy whereby people appointed into big positions have the academic and track record to give credibility to those appointments. But if someone like myself who barely completed Std 5 can become premier of this country, then I'll be inclined to commit a ritual murder because my stupidity tells me that it's the only way to attract 'favour' from the appointing authorities..
April 5, 2013, 6:29 am, Ndonda

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