JOHN’S life was just falling apart.
He lost his job, his car was in a crash and his first-born son was taken to hospital after being stabbed. All this happened since last November.
So when John found a pamphlet about a man claiming to be a sangoma who could help him, he went to visit the man in Chiawelo, Soweto.
John Madlala (49), from Protea South in Soweto, told Daily Sun the sangoma promised him he would make his problems go away.
He suspects that the sangoma used a spell on him because he even told the man about his R50 000 in savings.
“He said he could triple that in three weeks. I took out all my money and gave it to him.”
The sangoma then presented John with a three-legged iron pot.
“He said the ancestors would give me an animal and I would have to eat it.
“When he opened the pot, a rat came out,” said John.
The sangoma then placed John’s money in the pot.
“The rat was big and black, but it did not try to get away.
“I tried to eat it so that I did as I was told,” John said. “Then I went back to the sangoma on Tuesday to get my money – but he was gone!”
He found out that the sangoma, who appears to be a fake, had only rented the backyard rooms and then moved out.
John does not even have a picture of the fraudster.
The police would not open a case because, they said, he gave the man his money.
“How can one man be so ruthless? I came to him with problems and he made them worse,” he said.
He now wanted to warn people about such sangomas.
Gauteng Police Captain Kay Makhubele said people should not trust anyone with get-rich schemes because they always backfire.
