Witchdoctor's stunts lands him in court – and is fined K12, 000 to threatening to make a suspected thief mad
Written by Millennium on June 8, 2019
VICTORIA KASANGA writes
@SunZambian
A NDOLA witchdoctor has been fined K12, 000 for threatening to make a man go mad if he continued denying that he was a thief.
Chileshe Chansa, a 27-year-old bricklayer of Chifubu Township has sued ‘Doctor’ Musesha Mpili a 65 year old witchdoctor of Kawama Township for accusing him of being a thief.
The case came before Chifubu Local Court senior presiding magistrate Besa Mushibwe sitting with Kaala Nyambe and Paul Kayula.
Mr Chansa told the court that in September last year his sister had engaged him to supervise a project for her house.
After some days at the project, he discovered that a drilling machine was missing.
He said he then asked the owner of the machine, Richard Musonda, if it was at his place but he said it was not there.
Mr Chansa said in May this year said some of the people he was supervising said they knew a man who could help them find the missing drilling machine.
The workers at the project site then advised Mr Musonda to seek the services of Mr Mpili whom they said could locate the thief.
“We went to the witchdoctor accompanied by my sister. When we reached his shrine, he asked us to write down a list of suspects on a white piece of paper,” he said.
At this point, Mr Mpili identified Mr Chansa as one who stole the drilling machine.
Mr Chansa said he denied that he was not the one who stole the machine but the witchdoctor threatened him that he would go mad if he kept denying.
“He did not point at the other suspects because they were his neighbours and he performed his magic while he was drunk and no wonder he pointed at me even when I did not even steal the machine,” he said.
In his statement, Mr Mpili said in May last year he received a list of suspects from Mr Musonda the owner of the missing drilling machine asking him to track down the person who had stolen it.
He said he asked Mr Musonda to go to his shrine with white plain papers on which he could perform his work.
“I asked Mr Musonda who he thought the prime suspect was and that he brought Mr Chansa and other suspects,” he said.
He said he then told them to write down their names on a piece of white paper and to smear some brown soil and that Mr Chansa was the one found to have stolen the machine.
Mr Mpili said when he performed rituals on the paper, all the names of the other suspects disappeared and only that of Mr Chansa’s remained.
He said that was an indication that he was the one who stole the machine but he kept on refusing and that was the reason he told him that he was going to go mad.
The court ordered the witchdoctor to compensate Mr Chansa with K12,000 with the first payment of K1,000 thereafter K500 monthly installments.
