Man sold tourist's body parts
2009-06-30 09:02
Johannesburg - A part-time mortuary employee who sold a hand and a breast to a "pastor" in Acornhoek, has allegedly confessed to police that the body parts belonged to a Dutch tourist.
The woman died four weeks ago in an accident outside Lydenburg. She, along with three other Dutch tourists, had arrived in South Africa for a holiday merely four hours before the accident.
The head-on collision a few kilometres outside Lydenburg caused the death of three people - two Dutch and one South African.
The mortuary employee, who used to work part-time at Doves in Lydenburg, on Thursday apparently confessed to police that he had cut off the body parts with a homemade knife at the accident scene.
The police's unit for organised crime nabbed the suspect, Ben Mongadi, 35, two weeks ago.
He reportedly sold the body parts to a self-proclaimed pastor from Acornhoek. Mongadi told police he was paid R800.
Sangoma told police
The "pastor", Phillemon Baloyi, 47, was arrested when he, in turn, wanted to sell the body parts to a sangoma for R3 500. The sangoma notified the police that someone was trying to sell human remains to him as muti.
It was apparently during last week's interviews that Mongadi first mentioned that the body parts belonged to the Dutch tourist. Beeld has heard from a reliable source that Mongadi has since then given even more information to the police.
Danie van der Berg, Doves' district manager, said the company will only comment once the police investigation has been completed.
Mongadi appeared briefly in a Lydenburg court on Monday. He wasn't asked to plead.
On Monday Leonard Hlathi, spokesperson for the police's organised crimes unit, didn’t want to comment on Mongadi's allegations or the investigation.