I AM not mnyamana!
This is the cry from Chipo Moyana (34) from Alaska in Mamelodi East, Tshwane.
“People look at my face and laugh,” said Chipo.
“Now people call me names. Some people are even scared to come close to me. They stare at me as if they’re watching a movie.”
Chipo, a mother of one child, said her body has never changed colour.
She said at first people who knew her asked her why she was blackening her face.
“But I never used any lotions or took tablets to change the colour of my skin,” she said.
She said kids have even run away from her on the streets.
Chipo said she was a vegetable and fruit hawker at Skierlik, near Pienaarspoort, and she suspects jealous people did evil things to her because her business was doing well.
“I made over R400 on a busy day and I think jealous people and other Vendas were not happy with my success,” she said.
She said after the trouble with her skin started, she stopped selling her produce.
“If I’d not stopped I’d be dead by now. I can’t die for fruit and vegetables,” she told Daily Sun.
Her skin started itching and burning in September and she couldn’t sleep.
“I watched my skin becoming darker and darker,” she said.
“I couldn’t believe it myself. Some people say it’s an allergy. Others say it’s witchcraft.”
She said no one in her family was like that. She never ate anything bad. She said izangoma told her jealous people did evil things to her.
“Please help me fix my face as I don’t have money. I’m not working.”
Traditional healer Koketso Maubane said: “She has to consult and we’ll be able to identify the problem.
“This might be amadlozi as well because they can do this if someone ignores a calling.”
Health Professions Council of South Africa spokeswoman, Priscilla Sekhonyana, said: “I strongly suggest that a doctor be consulted to have a better understanding of the condition.”
