Albino teen’s head cut off

Cop tells of muthi horror after Swaziland arrests

A police officer has described the trauma that he and other officers experienced when they discovered remains believed to be those of Gabisile Shabani‚ a 13-year-old albino girl who was abducted from her home in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga.

It is suspected Gabisile was killed for muthi purposes.

Her body parts were found on a property in Emalahleni, allegedly belonging to a traditional healer who was arrested last week.

“A [sniffer] dog was first put in there‚ but it came out with nothing‚” said the officer‚ who asked not to be named.

“The dog seemed weak and disoriented as it came out of the room. The dog handler asked [the traditional healer] what he had done to his dog and he said there was strong muthi in there.”

Inside the room‚ police officers found muthi‚ buckets and bags with various substances‚ and what appeared to be body parts. “He was telling us what was in each thing. He was speaking like a normal person‚ like you and I. It was really disturbing‚” said the officer.

Gabisile’s beheaded body was found in a shallow grave in Cullinan northeast of Pretoria last week. This was three weeks after she and her 15month-old nephew Nkosikhona Ngwenya were taken at gunpoint by three men who broke into their home in the middle of the night.

It was alleged the gunmen had mistaken Nkosikhona for a toddler in the family, who also had albinism. His badly decomposed body was recovered on the same day as Gabisile’s body.

He had been thrown into a swamp along the N4.

The officer said he was disturbed to learn from pathologists that Gabisile’s body had been mutilated.

Meanwhile‚ two other people have also been arrested in connection with the incident.

They were arrested in Swaziland and are yet to be brought back to South Africa.

The 32-year-old traditional healer remains in police custody after he appeared in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. He’ll return to court on March 6.