SAMKELO Mahlobo (17) met a sangoma and died.
“The sangoma stopped him on the street and consulted for him,” his dad Vukile Mbaba (38) told Daily Sun.
“He was never the same after that.”
He said it was as if Samkelo was possessed.
“He saw things. He spoke to people we couldn’t see and he wanted to leave with them.”
Vukile said the sangoma arrived last month where they live in Orange Farm, south of Joburg.
“Samkelo told his mother the sangoma wanted him to thwasa,” said Vukile.
“I was angry that a grown man could stop a child and scare him. He should have come to us first.”
He said Samkelo changed from being a happy person to something they did not understand.
He said things got worse when Samkelo took money meant to buy coal and went to the sangoma for consultation.
“We don’t know what he told him or gave him, but Samkelo started seeing things,” he said.
“He went missing on 13 September. We looked for him everywhere. We found his body in a dam on the Friday (18 September). He was dead and his body was already in a bad state.”
The angry community went to the sangoma’s place, but he allegedly said he had never met Samkelo.
Residents attacked the sangoma and burnt his shack, chasing him out of the area. Vukile said he couldn’t check properly if his son’s body parts were all there because his body was in a bad state.
“I hope my son was not zombified.”
Samkelo’s brother, Siyabonga Mahlobo (19), said Samkelo was no longer the younger brother he knew.
“It was like being with someone today and being with someone else the next day. That’s how quickly things changed.”
Neighbours said Samkelo, who was buried over the weekend, helped them with many things.
“He designed home addresses with his artistic skills for everyone. We all loved him,” said Makhosonke Dladla (33).
The sangoma is unknown and Daily Sun couldn’t locate him.
Gauteng police spokesman Captain Kay Makhubela said cops have opened an inquest docket.
