A WITCHCRAFT TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 17

A WITCHCRAFT TRIAL

Fifteen deaths in a kraal within a short period, the desecration of a grave and the belief that witchcraft was responsible were points brought out in a murder trial which has just closed at the Native High Court at Durban (South Africa). Muziwabantu Shandu, a Zulu, was found guilty of the murder of a native named Masofela Shabana in Zuluiand, and sentenced to seven years' hard labour. It was shown in evidence that Shabana was impaled on slicks and struck on the head. This was the old Zulu custom of dealing with those believed to be wizards or associated with wizardry. The accused native said that within a short period there had been fifteen deaths at his kraal. One night he was awakened by the barking of clogs. He went out and saw Shabana moving stones on the grave of his child, who had died a few days before. In passing judgment the Judge-President found that there were extenuating circumstances in the case, as the murderer had been actuated by a desire to avoid further calamities, He had thought, he was performing a public duty by killing a wizard.