“I am not harbouring tokoloshes,” says Mudau

A Tshirenzheni-Nzhelele woman, who over the course of some years managed to build herself and her family a decent house, is allegedly being accused of harbouring tokoloshes.

She said that a jealous relative is so obsessed and envious of her achievements that he wants to see her dead, and is inciting the community against her.

Azwihangwisi Mudau (38) says that her life has been put at stake by a malicious rumour started by a relative, who allegedly told the community "that she is keeping tokoloshes and survives on drinking human blood."

She does piece jobs for a living, but out of her meagre pay she had saved some money and built herself and her children a beautiful five-roomed house. She said that the torment on her life started recently after she had hired a relative to put in tiles after the fifth room of her house had been completed.

She emphasised that the house has been built through grant money and money made from piece jobs.

“My mistake was hiring the man to put tiles in some of the rooms, a job which he did nicely. I asked him to put tiles on the stoep outside and he did a shabby job. I removed the tiles because I did not like the way they had been put in, and that was the worst mistake that I could have made,” said Mudau.

She added that he came to find that the tiles had been removed and he became so angry that he started swearing at her. “I later heard people saying that he had told them that I drink human blood and that I had killed two people in the village, and this has affected me very negatively."

She said that she had talked to relatives to reprimand the man about spreading false rumours. "I am no longer free here as people stare at me whenever I move around the village," she added.

Mudau said that she believes that jealousy is causing him to spread bad gossip about her. "I started building this house in 1997 and I have been adding room by room until I have this structure, but this man wants me dead,” added Mudau, the mother of two children.

The relative, however, denies any knowledge of the matter.

News - Date: 23 October 2014

Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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