The five accused in the Tshitavha Sambandou and Folovhodwe grave robbery cases in Vhembe, who are applying for bail in the Makuya Periodical Court, might know their fate this week.

The five appeared on Tuesday and their application was postponed to Friday (today). The five, among them two traditional healers, stand accused of violating graves and corpses in the two villages.

Traditional healers Erick Kwinda (49), Avhapfani Nemungadi (42), Daniel Nephawe (23), Colbert Nemasisi (29) and secondary school learner Mathadzhila Munyai (20), who were all arrested almost two months ago, have been applying for bail since last week.

The defence teams have already submitted their arguments in court and the State and defence will address the court. The sale of body parts from corpses came to light two months ago after a 17-year-old former girlfriend of one of the accused confided to members of the community that she and her boyfriend used to wake up at night and dug up graves for parts that were later sold to a traditional healer.

Police dug up five graves and the suspicions were confirmed when some of the body parts were found missing. In one of the graves, the head of the body was missing, while in some other graves bones were missing.

The incident shocked the whole of Vhembe and the country and ignited anger in the community of Tshitavha, where community members went on the rampage, blockading streets with rocks and burning tyres.

They ended up burning houses and vehicles belonging to some of the suspects the community had identified as being involved in the crime.