‘Mass grave’ faith healer has a history of unreliable visions

THE woman who triggered startling claims of a mass grave on a KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane farm last month previously suggested that she could cure HIV/Aids using remedies prescribed by her ancestors — in her dreams.

Bongekile “Mshanyelo” Nkomo made headlines after KwaZuluNatal premier Senzo Mchunu, armed only with her “vision”, announced the existence of a mass grave.

Mchunu even asked President Jacob Zuma to authorise an investigation into the grave based on Nkomo’s tale of “restless spirits” who appeared to her in a dream.

To date there is no sign of an investigation, nor has there been any digging at the site to shed light on the validity of her visions about dead bodies at Glenroy farm in Dududu on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.

Nkomo has avoided every interview request — and has cancelled interviews with the Sunday Times at the last minute at least five times in the past few weeks.

While very little is known about her, some of those who have worked closely with her said this week that her claim to be a sangoma was news to them.

Dr James Hartzell, an American doctor, confirmed that Nkomo had made the Aids cure claim.

The two were interviewed for an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 2006.

In the article, Nkomo claimed that she had patients who initially tested positive for HIV and later tested virus-free after having taken her herbal medicines.

“That’s why we say ‘cure’,” she was quoted as saying. Hartzell, ‘NOT IN A GOOD SPACE’: Mshanyelo Nkomo says she had a vision of a mass grave who studied traditional health systems in China and India and worked with Nkomo on a multimillion-rand HIV/Aids project between 2005 and 2008, doubted her claims.

This week, Hartzell said that when he worked with Nkomo, she was an umthandazi (a faith healer) and not a sangoma.

“As I recall she was an umthandazi, though as you know the distinction between umthandazi and sangoma is a bit flexible,” he said.

Professor Nceba Gqaleni, a former deputy dean of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson Mandela School of Medicine and head of the African Healthcare Systems Research Initiative, also once worked with Nkomo.

He was sceptical of her latest “vision”.

“I am taking what she is saying with a pinch of salt. I have never known her as a sangoma but have known her as umthandazi.”

Gqaleni described Nkomo as not very truthful, and said she was “streetwise and liked money” — but said this was not a reason to doubt her vision about the mass grave.

Gqaleni worked with Nkomo on the first clinical study of the traditional African medicinal herb sutherlandia, funded by the US government. They sought to investigate the plant’s safety and efficacy for people with HIV/Aids.

A well-respected traditional healer in KwaZulu-Natal, who asked not to be identified, was unconvinced about Nkomo’s mass grave vision.

“Her story is not clear because she is a person who wants to get involved in many things and that’s why she is associated with ubungoma [divining], ubuthandazi [faith healing] and traditional healing,” said the healer.

“It’s possible that she heard from someone who knew that there are people buried there and then claimed the vision as her own. I would be happy if the government would investigate this matter.”

Nkomo repeatedly promised the Sunday Times an interview this week. When contacted on Thursday evening, she again cancelled, this time saying: “I’m not in a good space.”

She is a person who wants to get involved in many things

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