Kids killed for ‘medicine’

Muti murders so common people aren’t even shocked anymore

MUTI trading is rampant and South Africa’s economic woes will not help stem the trafficking of body parts — mostly those of children.

A seven-month study, the first of its kind, by Mozambican non- government organisation Human Rights League and South Africa’s Childline, delved into the gory practice of muti trading .

Anthony Minnaar, of Unisa’s criminal justice centre, said it was naive to think that muti killings were declining as more people gained access to Western medicine.

“In times of economic and political upheaval, those who believe in these medicines will still make use of muti. They believe it will protect them from hardship,” said Minnaar.

He said the difficulty in determining the scale of muti killings was that the bodies of victims were seldom found. “ The perpetrators will always try to dispose of the body so that it’s never found,” he said.

The report on the study by the Human Rights League and Childline detailed gory accounts of children’s frozen heads and genitals being smuggled into South Africa from Mozambique. Highlighted in the report is the story of a woman in Bloemspruit, Free State, who told researchers that she was advised by a traditional healer to wear a belt made of young boys’ penises and little children’s fingers to help ease her difficult pregnancy.

The sangoma charged her R4000 for the advice .

The study found that the most highly sought-after body parts were male genitalia, followed by human hearts, breasts and fingers.

Children in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to the depredations of muti killers. Researchers visited several provinces in Mozambique, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Free State to obtain first-hand accounts .

Childline’s national co-ordinator, Joan van Niekerk, told The Times: “It shows just how vulnerable our children are.” The report pointed to “so-called witch doctors who actively seek human body parts from live victims to be used in their medicine”. It highlights the fact that there are few policies and programmes to counter trafficking in body parts .

Stories gathered from Mozambique included:

A Maputo doctor told researchers that he had examined the body of a woman found in a village in 2007. He said her genitals were removed, presumably to be used in traditional medicine, after her throat was slit;
A 10-year-old boy’s body was found in Magude in 2006 . The child’s head, heart, liver and penis had been removed ; In Nampula city, a woman was found dead by her family in March 2007. Her throat was slit. Her killers had cut open her stomach, removed her genital organs, her eyes, tongue, heart and breasts; and

In Tete city , a man said he was knocked unconscious as he walked past a cemetery in August. When he woke up, his penis and scrotum had been removed and he was bleeding profusely. The Bloemspruit woman said she was instructed by a Sangoma to wear a belt made of two little boys’ penises and three fingers to assist her problematic pregnancy.

The sangoma charged her R4000 for the advice and also instructed hero drink a concoction she believed contained blood and fat. After falling ill, the woman burnt the items and went to see a doctor at a hospital instead.

Researchers conducted interviews with South African informants, one of whom said: “Ritual killings are common here. It’s like a daily bread. We do not even get shocked when a person is found dead with body parts removed”. A border official in Mpumalanga told researchers: “

I can tell you that the problems of trafficking along this border will never end and they do not only involve body parts of children, but even adults”. Another woman, who works at a market stall on the South African side of the border said:

“I saw a human head on top of some vegetables that were inside those big bags they use to carry goods. It was the head of a child... someone was trying to take the head from Mozambique into South Africa.”

A South African told the researchers: “Ritual killings are common here. It’s like daily bread.

We do not even get shocked when a person is found dead with body parts removed.