The Dzegere family of Ha Khakhu Makuleni outside Thohoyandou is still reeling with shock after strange objects, believed to be connected to witchcraft, were found in their lapa last Friday morning.

What was supposed to have been a good day for the family turned nasty as they had to use the whole day consulting different stakeholders after a new axe, a dead bird, a feather and new panga were discovered in the morning.

Gogo Sarah Dzegere (58) said she woke up at about 06:30 to do some normal morning chores. “I woke up early as usual to sweep the lapa, but was disturbed by the presence of strange and bizarre objects that were placed in front of my door,” she said. Dzegere said she was very surprised as all the objects are meant for harm and she felt that somebody had to be out to harm her and her family. “This is simply an act of witchcraft; somebody wants our family dead,” she added.

Dzegere said even though she was surprised, she was not scared. “The person who did this is doomed to fail in his plans as I put everything in the hands of God. “I am a staunch Christian and a member of the ZCC, and what I will do is just to pray to God to unfold the mystery and the secret to me and the family,” she said.

She added that she could continue with sweeping and she decided to call her sister, who is a local ward councilor attached to the Mutale Municipality. “We decided to notify the local traditional leader, who did not waste any time and the police were also called to the scene.”

The local traditional leader, Musanda Vho Makondelela Khakhu, said he was shocked by the incident. “Nothing of this nature has ever happened in my village; this is meant to sow confusion and pointing of fingers in the village,” he said. Khakhu said people should not be quick to jump to conclusions as the issue could take them to the era when people were just burnt for nothing after being suspected of witchcraft.

“We have to be sensitive when we deal with this issue. We all know that, according to our culture, all of this is a bad omen to the family but we should sit down as a village and seek a way out of this,” he said. He said he, together with other concerned stakeholders, will call a meeting to discuss and make residents refrain from their evil ways.

Community leader Makondelela Netshiya said incidents of alleged witchcraft had been prevalent in the pre-democracy era and left many people killed on allegations of witchcraft. “We do not want to move back the clock and have a recurrence of what happened in those years; we have to get an amicable solution to this problem,” he said. He said the best solution will be to call a meeting of all community structures where the issues could be ironed peacefully once and for all.

An impromptu meeting involving the traditional leader, structures and the police was held at the family homestead and it was decided that no case would be opened as there was no suspect. The traditional leader also stressed that no one should point fingers at any person as there was no concrete evidence to support such allegations. Police were requested to take the items for safekeeping, in case new evidence comes to the fore.