Eastern Cape - The sangoma believed to have performed rituals on protesting Lonmin mineworkers in Marikana, North West, has been gunned down, the Farlam Commission heard on Monday.
At the resumption of the public hearings in the Rustenburg Civic Centre, advocate Ishmael Semenya, for the police, told retired judge Ian Farlam that the man was shot on Sunday.
“It was with a deep sense of shock to learn about the assassination of the sangoma (implicated) in the Marikana muti rituals. He was gunned down in the early hours of yesterday morning,” said Semenya.
He said police had been making efforts to bring the sangoma to testify as a witness before the commission.
No further details were given but Farlam said the murder was “obviously a serious matter”.
According to Dispatch Online, the sangoma known as Ndzabe, was killed at his home in Mbizana, in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday morning.
Area police spokesman Captain Mlungisi Matidane confirmed the killing, Dispatch Online reported on Monday.
According to the report, Matidane said five men driving a Polo went into Ndzabe’s homestead on Sunday morning under the pretence that they were there to consult the healer.
“He walked towards them to find out what they wanted. As he was talking to them, one of the men drew a 9mm pistol and shot him. He fell on the ground and the rest of the men drew R5 rifles and started shooting,” said Matidane.
Ndzabe was later taken to hospital where he died, the report said.
The vehicle in which the five suspects were travelling was found not far from Ndzabe’s village. It had been set alight.
Police have opened a case of murder.
The Farlam commission investigating the circumstances of the deaths of 34 miners shot by police in Marikana on August 16 had earlier been told of a sangoma who had given workers muti to protect them and make them brave, invincible and invisible in battle.
The sangoma was reportedly shown in police video footage taken from a helicopter performing rituals as workers stripped naked before him in long queues.
He is said to have promised the workers that police guns would malfunction when they faced them if they followed his instructions and took his muti. - IOL, Sapa