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FAMILY: ‘BLACK CAT’ HAD E35 000 IN HIS POCKETS

27/01/2021 01:25:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

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MANZINI – It was a double loss for the family of Elliot ‘Black Cat’ Fakudze.

This is because on the day of his demise, Fakudze supposedly left his compound with money said to be about E35 000. This was disclosed by some of his family members.

The traditional healer died on Sunday afternoon as his vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), was swept away by floods while crossing the Mndobandoba Bridge.

As the vehicle was swayed by the raging floods, which were as a result of Cyclone Eloise, the family members suspected that the money could have been washed away in the process.

This, it was concluded, after his vehicle was pulled out of the river where it had spent the night after ramming a railway line bridge. According to one of the family members, ordinarily, the traditional healer kept money in the arm rest of any vehicle he was being chauffeured in.

The family said when they inspected the arm rest compartment after the vehicle was pulled out of the river; they discovered that it was closed but full of mud.

The family member said, noting this, they enquired from some of the children the deceased was travelling with before he met his death and it was established that he had kept the money in the pockets of the camouflage jacket he was wearing.

According to some of the family members, before leaving his compound for the last time on Sunday, Fakudze had informed some of his children that he was missing his deceased son - Mukelo - and wore his jacket. Mukelo was a soldier and allegedly died at the hands some military men from the Military Police Department, who were punishing him. This took place in 2012.

Following being swept along the Mndobandoba River by the floods, Fakudze’s body went missing for some hours and was later recovered in his sacred dam, where he performed his spiritual rituals in line with his practice as a traditional healer.

Hands

When his body was found, it was in a sitting position. According to some of the family members who formed part of the search party, their father was found in a sitting position with his hands wrapped around his knee.

However, the son said the camouflage jacket that the deceased had worn when leaving his residence was not found. The deceased’s children said in the days leading to his death, he jokingly told them that his time in this earth was about to be over and he (Black Cat) said he would not die from COVID-19 or get killed by someone.

“Instead, he said he would go back to Tanzania and this would be through water. Tanzania is where he got his powers,” they said. They also reiterated what their father had shared with this publication in his lifetime that he was initiated in Tanzania and he got his powers from water.

Furthermore, they claimed that Fakudze also told them that when he died, he would go to ‘his sacred dam’ near the Great Usuthu River, where he used to perform rituals.

“This is where the search party found him dead after a long search,” one of the children said.

In that regard, they said even though they were shocked and saddened by the demise of their father, they were relieved by the fact that he knew about his death. Some of the deceased’s children, in unison, said they believed that everything went according to the ancestors’ plans.