Muti murders plague Mpuma

2003-12-08 10:13

Riot Hlatshwayo

Secunda - Mpumalanga police fear that a muti syndicate may be responsible for yet another beheading in the province's muti murder triangle in the eastern Highveld.

A string of headless bodies have been recovered from streams and in the veld over the past three years with the most recent discovery being made on November 18.

"We're left with no alternative but to suspect that there is a muti syndicate in the area because most of the bodies that were recovered in the past three years had parts cut off," said Eastern Highveld police spokesperson Sergeant Charles Nkosi.

In the most recent incident, body parts were found in a river in Embalenhle near Secunda.

"A person crossing a bridge over a river in Welamlambo section in Embalenhle noticed something strange floating in the water," said Nkosi.

On closer inspection the pedestrian found the dismembered head and limbs of an unidentified man, tied together with wire. Police were alerted and they searched for nearly three hours before finding the torso about 15km down river.

The search continued and, a week later, the buttocks were found. One leg is still missing. All the parts have been sent to a laboratory for forensic tests.

In 1998, three heads and three bodies were found, a week apart, floating in different dams and rivers near Delmas and Sundra.

The heads did not belong to the bodies, however, meaning six people had been slaughtered.

Police were concerned at the time that the murders were committed by a mentally deranged man who had escaped from Weskoppies psychiatric hospital.

He had been committed to the hospital after decapitating a young girl in Delmas in 1990 and trying to sell her head for R1 000.

The man was never caught.

On April 7 this year, a human skull was discovered half buried next to a dirt road between Delmas and Devon. The rest of the body was never found and the murder is believed to be linked to the other beheadings.

In 2000, in the Amsterdam area of the eastern Highveld, a five-year-old boy was killed and his genitals, head, an arm and a leg were found in a bag at a suspect's house.

The suspect has been declared a state president’s patient.

Police have not made a breakthrough in any of the cases and are appealing to the public to come forward with information that may help them.

- African Eye