Man 'bewitched' out of R48 500
2008-04-10 18:10
Witbank - Four bogus witchdoctors were arrested here for allegedly defrauding a man of R48 500, said Mpumalanga police on Thursday.
Captain Leonard Hlathi said the four illegal immigrants were arrested on Wednesday.
He said: "It all started when the man picked up a pamphlet from a distributor in town. Among other things, it informed the readers about doctors who could help to cleanse bad luck."
Hlathi said the 48-year-old man was interested and went to consult them.
He was told his ancestors wanted him to "buy" luck by purchasing it with thousands of rands, equal to his age.
"He was told to quit his job at Eskom so that he could give his money to the doctors, who would pray to his ancestors for his luck."
Put money in trunk
According to Hlathi, the man went to borrow R38 000 from the bank and borrowed R20 000 from his employer and gave the doctors R48 500.
He said the man went back to the doctors who instructed him to put the money in a trunk which was full of R100 notes.
"They gave him three sets of keys for the trunk and instructed him to keep them, but to leave the trunk behind," said Hlathi.
The police were told by the man's son and the "doctors", aged between 24 and 38, were arrested.
The trunk was found empty and they were charged with fraud, corruption and being in the country illegally. Three were from Uganda and the other was from Kenya.
They are due to appear in Witbank Magistrate's Court on Friday.
- SAPA