By Lungi Langa
A 34-year-old woman from Manguzi has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars for trying to sell an 11-year-old albino boy to a traditional healer for muthi.
The Ingwavuma Regional Court sentenced Mpume Mabika following her conviction.
In June 2016, Mabika contacted James Mthembu, 61, a local inyanga, and told him that she was selling an 11-year old albino child that he could use for muthi.
She asked him to pay her R100,000 for the child, who is the son of a distant relative.
Mthembu said while he doesn’t remember the day he got the call from Mabika, he remembered their conversation as if it was yesterday.
“It was just before 9 am that she called and told me she was selling an albino child,” recalled Mthembu.
The traditional healer knew that to save the child’s life he would have to pretend to be interested in buying the boy.
“She then told me she was going to kill the child and bring him to me. I told her not to kill the child; I said I would kill him myself.
“I spent four hours on my own, still in shock. Eventually, I told my wife and I also called a friend who was a traffic officer and was able to put me in touch with the police so that I could report this incident.”
Police thought this could help with another case of a missing child they were working on.
It was then that a plan was orchestrated by the police to capture Mabika by luring her with the promise of paying her for the child.
Mthembu, who is well known in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal for speaking against the killing of people with albinism for muthi, said he and the police were worried when Mabika didn’t call for five days. When she finally got back in touch, they moved forward with the plan to meet her.
Mabika drove around with undercover policemen looking for the child. She told them if they had been there earlier “they would have caught the buck”.
Eventually, she took them to the child’s home and showed them his room so that they could kidnap him later that evening.
According to Mthembu, the police returned to the child’s home, took him and met with Mabika to confirm they had the right child. After she confirmed it, she was arrested instantly.
“Can you imagine that she had offered to sell me three children including twins who were also albino for R300,000, R100,000 a child? I had asked her to reduce it to R50,000 a child but she told me that these things were expensive.
“I could not believe that a person could be that devious as to sell another human being for such a purpose,” said Mthembu.
In the court documents the mother of the child said that her son had lived in fear ever since this happened. She said that following the incident, she had not allowed her child to leave the yard and had kept him by her side.
Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal, Advocate Elaine Zungu, has welcomed the sentence, saying they hoped it would address the myth of killing people living with albinism for traditional medicine.
Pictured above: Mpume Mabika who was sentenced to 20 years for trying to sell an 11-year-old boy for muthi
Picture: Facebook
