S Moloto: Ritual killings conference

16 November 2006

Programme Director
MEC for Safety, Security and Liaison, Mr Ratshivhanda Ndou
Other Members of the Executive Committees (MECs) here present
Executive Mayor of Vhembe and other Mayors here present
Councillors
Traditional leaders
Traditional healers
Religious leaders, business and community representatives
Chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) Commissioner, Joyce
Piliso-Seroke
Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS)
The University of Venda's (UNIVEN) Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Marcus
Ramogale
Dr Mathole Motshekga of Kara Heritage Institute
Professor Victor Ralushai
Other academics and representatives from various chapter nine
institutions
Fellow delegates
Ladies and gentlemen

Ritual killings and the misuse of human body parts for luck and fortune, is
believed to be a centuries old ritual that is practised among our communities
throughout the province, the country and even the continent. The fact that it
has been around this long does not however justify its continued practice. It
is an abominable, cruel and violent act which all of us must not only condemn,
but actively work towards its total eradication.

The fact that it continues to ravage our communities, particularly in the
Vhembe district of our province, is an indictment on all of us for failing to
combat this very serious social crime. This Monday we read in the Sowetan
newspaper of the apparent ritual murder of a sixteen year old, Johanna Mothiba,
of Ga-Maraba village west of Polokwane. What this case sadly tells us is that
these murders continue to occur unabated and are not only confined to this
district alone.

Together with the CGE, we thought it was necessary to convene this gathering
of all relevant stakeholders to reflect not only on the on-going ritual
murders, but also on how all of us respond effectively to this menace engulfing
our communities and imposing fear and anxiety on our rural communities in
particular.

As you may well know, given the intensity of the challenge, we have had to
appoint a provincial police task team to review all ritually motivated reported
case dockets and to see if certain cases cannot be re-opened and offenders
retried. The task team also had to look at complexities in the arrest and
successful prosecution of offenders that led to many of these cases being
closed, without anyone being found guilty. This we did because of our
commitment to fight any form of crime and also due to the continued outcry from
affected communities about the increase in the number of victims while nobody
is being arrested and successfully prosecuted.

As you may well know, we released the report of the police investigation
team last month, which gave us some ideas on how to extricate this demon, in
our society, once and for all.

Part of the major findings of that report, apart from recommending the
holding of this conference today, is that there is a need for establishing a
specialised police investigating unit in occult related crimes and the
up-scaling of public awareness and a sustainable education drive. The other
notable observation from the report is that most community members are
reluctant to give evidence in courts of law against perpetrators because of
fear. Due to this pervasive fear and secrecy surrounding the practice, which
protects these killers, 47 cases were re-opened by the police and, four were
found to be ritually inspired.

Programme Director, we believe a big part of what we must discuss and agree
on at the end of this conference, is how do we liberate our communities from
this fear and take back the fight to the murderers themselves. We hope that at
the end of the two days, stakeholders would have adopted steps and measures
that would make ritual murderers to live in fear of the law and the wrath of
the community, instead of innocent and law abiding citizens.

Our view is that there are several other factors that encourage the practice
of ritual killings. There are issues of tradition, custom and culture. There
are also issues of belief systems or religion. There are roles played by some
of our traditional healers and business people in promoting this practice.
There are also matters of the law that do not assist us in meting out justice
to offenders found guilty. For example, the fine for possession of body parts
is negligible and there is no specific offence categorised as ritual murder.
All police docket entries are entered as murder and it is difficult to isolate
cases that may be ritually motivated.

However limited the successes might be and despite some obvious weaknesses
in our justice system, we may still recall that our police have been able to
make a number of encouraging breakthroughs, which led to the arrest and
conviction of suspected culprits in some of the cases. We unreservedly applaud
the courage and the diligence shown by the police and the prosecution team in
bringing to book criminals who were responsible for these killings. It is our
belief that justice would not have been done had community members not come
forward with evidence to corroborate allegations of ritual murders in the court
of law; hence we applaud them for taking a keen interest in the matter by
volunteering information which led to the arrest and sentencing of
suspects.

Despite all these factors, we know that there are people amongst ourselves
who accept the allegations, real or perceived, that there may be certain police
officers in the SAPS who are covering up and conniving with ritual murderers in
exchange for bribes. If this is true, government has always put the position
clear to say that any complicity that exists between ritual murderers and the
police would have to be exposed, and members of the public with information
have to come forward with evidence so that we relieve from duty and arrest such
evil police officers.

There is no doubt that the series of gruesome ritual killings, of the scale
we have witnessed in the province so far, have in a way put to test the
strength of both our criminal justice and our educational value system. While
it is clear that our legal system is vulnerable and not tight enough to deter
the continued occurrence of incidences of ritual murders, equally, the
education system is partly to blame for not doing enough to cultivate a culture
of humanity or ubuntu amongst our people. Perhaps this should serve as an
indictment to institutions of learning to begin strengthening a community value
system that clearly discourages the practice of primitive morals and backward
behaviour amongst some of our people. We hope and trust that the body of wisdom
gathered here would assist us to find better alternatives and solutions to
remedy our challenges.

In preparing for this conference, we took all these factors into account.
The wide range of different stakeholders here today represent in a way, the
acknowledgement of the impact these killings have on our people and their role
in combating them. We invited eminent people to present views in relation to
these factors and lay the ground for hopefully, fruitful deliberations in the
commissions and in the conference itself. We cannot afford to be just another
talk shop as innocent lives are lost every week. One life lost is one too
many.

During this conference, we must soberly reflect on the objective and
subjective drivers of the practice of ritual murders, for us to have an even
deeper understanding of the phenomenon. But more significantly we must ask and
answer the question: What is it that all of us are going to do to fight for the
end of ritual murders in our province?

Out of this conference must come a joint action plan that details the role
all of us, individually and collectively, will play towards defeating these
barbaric acts.

We must come out of this conference with a message of hope to our people
that says, "This is what we are going to do together with you to ensure that no
one will ever fall victim to these senseless killings." We must say with
confidence that enough is enough and that the perpetrators of these evil deeds
have all the reasons to be very afraid and to run. We commit the provincial
government to do everything possible and to throw all available resources to
the fight against ritual killings. We have a responsibility to do this without
failure.

We wish you fruitful and productive deliberations in the commissions and
conference itself, and hope that the outcomes will significantly advance the
fight against ritual murders. The challenge to succeed is enormous and almost
daunting, but we have got trust in your collective abilities to end this
catastrophe. It is our honour to now declare this important conference
officially open.

I thank you.

Issued by: Limpopo Provincial Government
16 November 2006