‘Kunokora tsoka’ witchcraft allegations land neighbour in court

A WOMAN from Mutare’s Garikai suburb is accusing her elderly neighbour of bewitching her after she caught her red-handed collecting soil that she had stepped on (kunokora tsoka) to use it for ritual purposes.

Mavis Mhenderere on Wednesday told a Mutare magistrates’ court that she was now living in fear of her neighbour, Janet Matapura, and her son Obert Vuta whom she accused of threatening to fix her with unspecified action after they had collected the soil she had stepped on.

She was applying for a protection order against the pair.

The three appeared before Mutare magistrate Miss Prisca Tendai Manhibi, who granted the protection order to Mbenderere against her neighbour and her son. She ordered them to go and live in peace.

“Mai ava vakandinokora tsoka (This woman used the soil I had stepped on to bewitch me), and everybody saw her do it, the reason being, I was called in at the criminal court as a State witness on a matter where she and her son were the accused persons.

“Together they stripped naked and beat up a woman in public. The woman in turn reported the matter to the police and I was called to the court as a State witness. But to scare me off among other reasons, Matapura took the soil that I had stepped on,” said Mhenderere.

To futher back her application, Mhenderere said Matapura and her children were also in the habit of calling her a prostitute and telling everyone in the Garikai neighbourhood that she (Mhenderere) was HIV positive.

“Your Worship, this woman and all her children hate me. I haven’t had any peace for years now. They call me a prostitute and spread rumours that I am HIV positive in the neighbourhood. In addition to all that, they throw dog poo into my yard on several days and threaten to beat up my minor child who has nothing to do with any of this,” concluded Mhenderere, begging the court to instil peace between herself and her neighbours.

Matapura and Vuta told the court that they did not have any problem with the protection order being granted against them.

They, however, insisted that they had not breached Mhemberere’s peace in any way and that she just hated their family for no reason.

“I do not do any of the said things. When she was caught with an extra-marital lover by her husband, the whole neighbourhood came to see. That is when she was called names like ‘prostitute’ and ‘shallow woman’ but I was not part of the name callers. She just hates us for no reason and I wonder why,” said Matapure.

Matapure also denied the allegations of bewitching Mhenderere.