Witch hunter or not?

Fake goblins give away bogus Tsikamutanda
Chinhoyi Bureau - the Herald

TWO fake goblins left in the blankets in which a witch hunter — Tsikamutanda — was sleeping in, after allegedly exorcising a house in Banket have led to his arrest.

Morris Mbofana (24) is now facing three counts of fraud after allegedly approaching three people claiming that he could rid their houses of evil spirits.

He allegedly forced his victims to sign a piece of paper as proof that they had willingly paid him.

In the first incident, Mbofana went to Fatima Tauro’s house at Mimosa Farm in Banket and identified himself as a traditional healer who had come to exorcise the house of goblins.

She consented to his proposals to cleanse the house at a fee of US$7 and three chickens. He allegedly removed some hairy objects with beads from Tauro’s daughter’s stomach and another from a clay pot and told her that the objects were goblins.

Mbofana indicated that there was a major cleansing ceremony that required an ox as payment. He demanded two goats that he had seen in the pen before threatening her with serious harm if she failed to pay.

In the second incident, he approached Miriam Chiringidza on March 5 and told her that he wanted to remove evil spirits, which were haunting her father’s family.

They went to Chiringidza’s house where she indicated that she had brought a traditional healer to exorcise the house of evil spirits.

Her father was reluctant to pay the US$23 that Mbofana was demanding. However, his two daughters offered to pay the money. He allegedly removed a hairy object similar to the one he removed in the first incident. He, however, indicated that the money they had paid was not commensurate with the work he had done.

Mbofana demanded two blankets, 2kg flour, 4kg sugar, two bars of laundry soap and two 750ml bottles of cooking oil.

He allegedly threatened the family with harm if they failed to meet his demand.

He again forced them to sign a paper declaring that they had not been induced to pay him.