Cannibalism: threat to torch houses

KZN village is teetering on the edge of violence.

The village rocked by cannibalism allegations – and where hundreds of people have admitted to eating human flesh – is teetering on the edge of violence as angry residents threaten to torch houses.

Hundreds of people in the Amangwe area of KwaZulu-Natal have confessed to eating human remains. At a residents’ meeting held on Monday night in the Amangwe area, which is near Estcourt, 300 people of the 700 present admitted to local councillor Mphembeni Majola that they had eaten human flesh given to them as muti (traditional medicine) by a local nyanga (traditional healer).

Nino Mbatha, 32, a practising nyanga, was one of those arrested by police on Sunday after a man walked into Estcourt police station and confessed that he was “tired” of eating human flesh.

Police were sceptical until he produced parts of a human leg and a hand.

Investigating officers immediately began an investigation, leading to the arrest of two others.

It is believed the three men raped, killed and ate their female victims.

Police are attempting to link them to other missing person cases in the area. It is not clear how far and wide they searched for their victims, and victims from Ladysmith, 70km from Estcourt, have not been ruled out.

Majola told The Citizen yesterday afternoon that he and the local leader in the area, a Chief Mthembu, were rushing to intervene in a fight in the area after fuming residents threatened to burn down the houses of the accused’s family members.

Majola said the people who confessed to eating the human flesh said the female victims were raped and killed. They also said that they ate maggots from human corpses because they believed the larvae would “fly to the banks and bring back money”.