The Netswera Royal family at Tswera outside Thohoyandou believes that Vhamusanda Vho Mphatheleni Vhulahani Netswera, who went missing two weeks ago, was killed for ritual purposes.

His body was found next to a local church, not far from the village, by a cattle herder last Friday .

The disappearance and subsequent finding of the body of the 83-year-old well-known traditional leader has sent shock waves through royal circles and the local community. Police and the locals had been working around the clock, combing the mountains and the surrounding bushes looking for him, but in vain. The spot where he was found was also searched, but no body was found then. This has led the family to believe that the old man might have been killed only recently, as the body was still intact.

“We have strong suspicions that our Chief was murdered for muti and this could have happened recently. We have been looking for him for the past two weeks, which shows that the body should have decomposed if he had been killed a while ago,” said Aluimelwi Mukosi, family spokesperson. Mukosi said they had lost all hope of ever recovering the body after searching all over for the body but in vain. He said it is surprising that the spot where he was found had been searched before, but no body was found.

“We feel all the circumstances prove that our Chief was killed somewhere else and later dumped here. After the community threatened to do a house-to-house search, we think the perpetrators felt that they could be arrested and that is why he was dumped here,” he said.

He said the family was only consoled by the fact that his body has been found, but the big question remains, what had happened to him before he died and who had killed him? “We are very worried about this mystery, but we hope that the post mortem will clear things up and tell us exactly what happened to him."

Netswera had led his people for five decades. He went missing in early July after supper.

Mukosi said funeral arrangements were progressing, but would only be determined by the results of the post mortem. If the result or the examination arrive in time, he will be buried at the sacred burial site in private this week and the public service will be held on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Makuya police, WO Mashudu Madida, confirmed the incident, and said an inquest docket had been opened. He could not rule out the possibility of the case being changed if the post mortem results point somewhere else. “We are just waiting for the inquest processes to be concluded and if the results warrant a change in the case, we will quickly do so. Meanwhile, we urge all out there who might have information about the incident to please help us in solving the mystery,” he said.

The Makuya area is riddled with mysterious disappearances where people just go missing and are never to be found. Madida said they had six cases of people disappearing without a trace, but two of them were finally discovered murdered. He urged the community not to regard the cases as closed because they are old.

“These are serious cases and they are still pending and investigations are still continuing. We urge our communities to help us. We could have breakthroughs in these cases because some members of the communities could have information about them,” he said.