Gran’s shock ‘confession’

AN EASTWOOD, Pietermaritzburg, grandmother has apparently confessed to enlisting the help of three men, sourced by her Rwandan boyfriend, to intimidate a herbalist who allegedly received R130 000 in cash deposits from her for medical treatment but failed to deliver.

The herbalist, known as Chief Patrick, is feared dead since he went missing on June 6 – the day he had allegedly been lured to the grandmother’s home.

The grandmother, is however, adamant that the herbalist left her house alive with her boyfriend and his friends – despite being badly beaten up with a hammer and other implements.

Arrested and charged with kidnapping, the grandmother has not yet appeared in court and so cannot be named. A source confirmed the content of the confession she made to a magistrate. “He was alive and talking when these four guys took him. He even agreed to pay or give them his white Mercedes Benz he had arrived at the house with,” she said in the confession.

The grandmother, who recently retired and was in receipt of her pension payout, said she had met with the herbalist in 2016 via her boyfriend and he was going to treat her illness – a stroke and back problems.

She said she had paid him the R130 000 – in two R50 000 deposits and then a R30 000 deposit.

“He promised to make my money double. He kept asking for more and more money. I believed him and I was stupid to do so. On June 6, I phoned him and told him to come see me at my place. My boyfriend arranged for his friends to come to my place,” she said.

On arrival, the unsuspecting herbalist was harassed and questioned as to the whereabouts of the pensioner’s money. When the healer said that he did not have the money, he was attacked by the four men with a hammer and other items.

“He was kicked and hit with a hammer and other objects. He was bleeding profusely from his head and had bruises all over his body. He was alive.

“He was tied up with cable ties and they left him there for a couple of hours. They kept demanding the money but he said he could not return it,” said the grandmother.

She said while she did not get physically involved in the assault, the men continued to assault him sporadically in an attempt to get the money.

“I then became scared and asked them to stop. I had wanted them to scare him into returning the money. I didn’t expect such an assault to take place. These men also took my two cellphones as well as Patrick’s,” said the pensioner.

She said after one of the men called someone on their cellphone, a white car came and picked them up.

“They carried Patrick into the car. He agreed to pay or give me his car. He was alive and talking. I don’t know what they did with the body… I mean with him…

“I don’t know what happened. I hope he is alive,” said the woman in her confession.

Police confirmed they were investigating a case of kidnapping and assault while they continue their search for the missing herbalist.