Manzini - Swaziland police were on Wednesday still searching for the leg of a man who was killed when he was struck by a government vehicle on Sunday night.
Residents of Croydon, where the accident occurred, suspect the leg was taken by a witch or a witch’s customer for use in muti, a potion popular among superstitious Swazis.
Both the excessive speed of a Ministry of Health vehicle and the reported inebriation of Vusi Thani, 43, contributed to the accident on the MR5 highway north-east of Manzini. The force of the impact severed his leg.
Muti, made from human body parts mixed with herbs, is illegal in Swaziland.
However, corpses with missing body parts turn up on occasion in remote areas. The potion is believed to bring luck and even invincibility to its user, and is thought to be used by some candidates running for elections as a means to make them undefeatable.
Swazis who live with albinism are particularly concerned about muti killings, as several people with albinism have fallen victim to muti killings in Tanzania this past year.
“After so long a time has passed, I don’t think the leg will be found in a bush or up a tree. It has been taken,” a resident of Croydon said.
“I hope an animal took the leg, but our fear is it is being used for muti. A leg is valuable to such people (who make the potion),” he said.
Foreign Service