Former Zimbabwean minister dragged to highest court by son for witchcraft

Son of former Zimbabwean Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere has dragged his father and stepmother to the country’s highest court to be exorcised for practicing witchcraft.

Mangwiza Chigwedere since December 2015 failed to gain the attention of a Magistrate Court and the High Court, thus filed another application at the country’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday.

“The right to life has been violated and with the courts even being told on paper and viva voce that we are dying; we are being killed and maimed; we have more than 10 mentally-challenged; we are being exploited through culture,” Mangwiza stated in his affidavit cited by local newspaper News Day.

Among the twenty-two other respondents on his application are his stepmother, Emilia Zharare, his aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, chiefs and culture minister and traditional healers.

“It is a well-known fact that goblins feed on human blood. Blood from the bloodline of the one who sought these spiritualities and brought them into the family, though that does not mean foreign blood is not welcome to be fed on as we have spilled it measured in busloads,” he stated.

The aggrieved son is calling on the court to stop his father and stepmother from tormenting their clan by granting Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association permission to get rid of the goblins.

The previous courts dismissed the case saying it was spiritual and could not be handled by the courts. Mangwiza said he was robbed and accused the courts of applying general law instead of customary law.

“Threat of life in our clan is imminent and many have gone six feet under and it will continue until the intervention of the courts in the removal of that which is killing and maiming,” he added.

The Constitutional Court is yet to sit on the case.

Meanwhile, Section 98 of Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act says any person who engages in witchcraft to instill fear or harm someone will be jailed for five years or liable to pay a fine.