Granny Masindi Muronga is thanking God for having saved her from certain death, after surviving what she alleges was definitely a ritual murder attempt.

She claims she had gone to a toilet when a group of men wanted to grab her for her private parts, but through a stroke of luck she slipped from their evil net and dashed into the night with them in hot pursuit. The incident happened at Maunavhathu outside Vuwani in Limpopo last week.

Muronga’s ordeal started on Friday evening when she was attending a funeral night vigil at Maunavhathu, next to 15 SAI Battalion in the Vuwani area. Masindi, aged about 60, of Tshivhale, said she was at the vigil when Mother Nature called. “It was late in the evening when I felt I had to go to an outside toilet, which was a few meters from the main house,” she said.

“When I was about to enter the toilet, a group of men surrounded me and I overhead one of them saying that my parts could be the right stuff for the job. I was trapped as they were all over me and I thought my last day had finally arrived,” she said. Masindi said she tried to shout for help, but her voice could not come out and she became convinced that the attackers were using strong muti to weaken her.

“I do not go to church, but that day I prayed to God to spare my life. He spared me and I owe my whole self to Him,” she said.

Muronga said it was difficult for her to explain how she managed to free herself from the group which had surrounded her. “It is still a mystery how I gathered enough courage and freed myself and escaped certain death. I was powered by an unknown force which helped me to jump the fence and outrun my attackers into the night,” she said.

She said she ran aimlessly, but ended up at Ha-Mangilasi, a nearby village. “I could hear their footsteps following me, but as they approached me, I gained more energy and disappeared.” She said she jumped the fence of another household and hid under a tree until the early hours of the morning. “I had to move early from the yard to avoid being labeled a witch, which could have added more woes for me,” she said.

She said she walked for many kilometers and reached home at sunset. “I will never forget this ordeal. I had heard of people being ritually murdered but it never crossed my mind that I would one day be a victim,” she said.  Muronga said she never thought people could be so cruel as to want to kill her.

“I think the whole thing was a set-up as even people who went with me to the funeral never bothered to ask where I had been the previous night. I will never trust anybody ever again,” she said. She said she did not report the matter to the police as she could not identify her attackers and could not even show police the home where the funeral was.

Attempts to trace who had gone with her to the funeral proved fruitless.

Maunavhathu is in the Vhembe District, which is known for the spate of ritual killings, and is not far from Khwekhwe village where a mentally disturbed man was found partly burnt and in an advanced state of decomposition.

The spokesperson for the Vuwani police, Insp Elijah Malatjie, said he had no record of the incident. “We view the incident as very serious and we would like to invite the victim to visit her nearest police station so that the matter can be taken forward,” he said.