FOR HOURS, the family waited for their son’s body to go cold and hard – but it remained warm and soft.
After two weeks, they decided to bury the boy – but something wasn’t right . . . so they dug up the grave.
But they did not find a body. What they found was a doll lying in the coffin!
In an interview with community radio station, Vhembe FM, family member Jonas Mathivha said their 18-year-old son, whom they refused to name, suffered a strange illness earlier this year.
He said they held a family meeting at Ha-Gelebe Village, outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo, to discuss how they could help him recover. Jonas said before he died, the teenager had a strange dream.
“He told my sister he sees a hole with needles and that there were people who were chasing him. He asked that we fight for him,” said Jonas on radio.
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When the boy eventually died in March, they kept his body at home for a few hours without calling a hearse.
Jonas said this was because his body remained warm and his limbs were flexible.
“When a person dies, the body must become cold and hard. His body stayed warm and soft, that’s why we took some time to call a hearse. We believed he might wake up,” Jonas told the station.
He said the body was kept at a mortuary for two weeks and they eventually decided to bury it last month.
“But we were not satisfied. We went to exhume his body on 27 April to check if indeed we had buried him,” he added.
“But we found a doll inside the coffin.
He said it was definitely him when they checked his body.
“Now we are sure he was taken and turned into a zombie. It wasn’t him we buried,” he said.
He told the station they were waiting for him to come home so he could point out the people who had done this to him.
“Those people must pay us back the money we used for the funeral and spent looking for help. We will welcome him back with open arms when he comes back,” Jonas finished.
When Daily Sun spoke to Jonas, he said there were some things they were dealing with at the moment and he therefore couldn’t speak to the media.
A resident (49) said he couldn’t imagine the stress the family was facing.
“People are heartless. How can they can do such a thing?” he asked.
Sangoma Nzama Maluleke said: the Mathivha family’s teen never died but was used as a zombie. “From the mortuary to his burial it was always a doll although people, including the family, though they saw his body. Strong muthi was used to disguise a doll as his body. This is possible when family members are involved because you need to use clan names to turn a person into a zombie.”
He said it would be difficult for the family to trace his whereabouts. “He is used as a zombie to do evil things. Only a strong sangoma and muthi can help to bring him home,” said Nzama.
Limpopo police spokesman Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi said they were aware of the incident. “We can’t open a case of violation of a corpse because no body was found inside the coffin,” he said.
