By Latwell Nyangu
HARARE – The witchdoctor who claimed to have rescued a young girl from a mermaid along Mukuvisi River has been slapped with an 18 month jail term.
Benson Matanhike, 30, was jailed along with his three accomplices and will remain behind bars as he has other kidnapping cases to answer.
He was rearrested immediately after his sentence was passed.
The fake witchdoctor, Clara Spiwe Makaranga, 39, Abel Makaranga, 30, and Daniel Makaranga, were arrested and appeared before Mbare magistrate Anita Tshuma charged with extortion as defined in section 134 (1) (a) of the criminal (codification and reform act) chapter 9:23.
The four tried to trick Fungai Zvinairo, 42, who is Clara’s ex-husband and fathered three children with her, according to the state.
Clara connived with her accomplice in a bid to ‘fix’ her former husband.
During mitigation, Clara told the court that she was angry with her ex-hubby since he was no longer taking care of their children and she decided to stage-manage the whole drama.
“Ndanga ndapererwa your worship, my former husband was no longer taking care of the children. I decided to fabricate this whole story so that he would pay and the payment would assist me in taking care of the children.
“I am the one who came up with the idea, forgive me,” she added.
The other three in-laws also told the court that they were angry with their brother-in-law for neglecting the children and they also wanted the ‘payment’ to cater for the children.
State counsel Tendai Shonhayi condemned the conduct of the quartet.
In passing sentence, magistrate Tshuma slapped each of them with 18 months imprisonment, six months of which were suspended for five years on condition each does not commit a similar offence.
The remaining 12 months were commuted to 420 hours of community service each.
The quartet resides at house number 2865, Zone 5 Hopely, Waterfalls.
According to State counsel Tendai Shonhayi, on January 10, the four incited the child to leave her father’s place of residence and go to Abel’s house in Hopely. It is the State’s case that she was given US$1 for transport by her mother, Clara.
The State had it that on January 11 the girl did as she was instructed. Meanwhile, upon realising that his daughter was missing, Fungai lodged a report with ZRP St Mary’s but efforts to locate her were in vain.
In an effort to locate the child, Fungai contacted his ex-wife Clara, Abel and Daniel advising them that his daughter was missing. Clara then called Fungai to her place of residence in Hopely where Benson was present and was demanding to be consulted.
During the consultation, Benson stated that the child had been taken by a mermaid and a ceremony was needed for the child’s safe return. Fungai was ordered to pledge three cattle.
On January 14, one of the four went and hid the child behind a boulder at Mukuvisi river bank. It was proved that the ceremony was conducted near the river bank with Abel and Benson leading the proceedings resulting in the purported rescue of the child.
Benson then demanded a ransom of three cattle or money equivalent to the beast release the child. Investigations into the matter led to the arrest of Benson who implicated his accomplices. H Metro
