“WE WILL deal with you the way we do witches.” This was one of the threats levelled against 59-year-old Margaret Makama-Hlungwani after her fallout with a neighbour’s son in 2010.
This year, following a period of improved community relations, the single mother of four said the insults and death threats had resurfaced after a neighbour’s daughter died in March.
Since then, threats and finger-pointing had become a daily occurrence, so much so that she was forced to flee her Bramfischerville home as her neighbours and community members insulted her unrelentingly and accused her of being a witch.
Makama-Hlungwani said things were okay between her and her neighbour until, in 2010, she told her neighbour’s son not to invite her daughters over to his room.
Relations between her and that neighbour subsequently soured and she was labelled a witch by the neighbour and later by members of the community.
Makama-Hlungwani said she never paid attention to the rumours until March this year, when a new wave of insults began and strangers started threatening her with death.
Makama-Hlungwani, who has been a resident of the township since year 2000, said it breaks her heart that she now has to leave her home and stay with her sisters in Meadowlands despite having a home of her own. To compound matters, her home has been burgled twice since her departure and recently she arrived to find her front wall vandalised and some of her house items missing.
“I do not know what to do now, because even the police have failed to help me and investigate the burglaries that have been happening since April. I have been forced out of my home by neighbours who call me a witch, and now my home is in complete shambles because of the burglaries that have been happening,” she said.
Another neighbour, Velemina Sape, said she, too, had been insulted and called names by the same neighbour who accused Makama-Hlungwani of witchcraft, and she was no longer on speaking terms with that neighbour.
“I, too, am having the same problem, as the neighbour no longer speaks or greets me after the death of her daughter in March. I have been called a dirty old woman and other unprintable names by the neighbour and other members of this community,” Sape said.
Makama-Hlungwani said she feared for her life and no longer felt safe in this community. She said she wished she had a way to escape the insults.
“I fear for my life, and even though I would love to come back and stay in my home with my children, things are really bad and I fear that the people who come to my home in the middle of the night will burn me alive inside this house,” she said.
Makama-Hlungwani and her children are now forced to live separately with relatives in Protea, Meadowlands and Diepkloof. Makama-Hlungwani said this hurt her as she couldn’t be with her children under one roof.
“It hurts me that my children are scattered all over the place and we cannot live like a normal family, all because of hatred that I am not sure where it comes from,” she said.
She said her attempts to find the people behind the burglaries and vandalism of her home were unsuccessful. She opened a case with the Dobsonville police station, but this was allegedly abandoned without any investigation.
“The police have closed the case of theft which I opened when the house was vandalised,” she said.
“No assistance has come from neighbours and the police did not question the neighbours. People were getting away with wrongdoing and now my life is being ruined.
“The police never came to investigate the matter, and when I went there again to open a second case of burglary and theft, they told me I had an existing case which they were investigating. Without questioning any of the neighbours, they simply sent me an SMS in July telling me they have closed the case.”
Dobsonville police station commander Brigadier Sipho Ngubane said the victim should return to lay a formal complaint and speak to the investigating officer as to the reasons behind the closure of her docket.
“I am afraid we cannot give you any information about this case because the case does not involve you. We can only divulge information about the case to the victim, who should communicate with us about her dissatisfaction about the investigation,” Ngubane said.
– The Star
