Fake Inyanga to appear in court (fourth one arrested in two weeks in Durban)

Monday 19 March 2012 – Isolezwe

10th page Headline: Fake inyanga to appear in court

A Ghanaian man, who called himself an inyanga and who allegedly conned a Marianhill man out of R18700 (promising that the man would get a huge bundle of cash from the ancestors) will appear in court today.

This fake inyanga (26) was arrested on Friday by police from Durban Central, after a trap was set by the man who was conned out of his money, and whose story was reported not so long ago.

Last week Isolezwe reported the story of Mr Nkosinathi Shange of iNgwavuma, who was conned out of R45 000 (which was his pension money from quitting his job) by a fake inyanga.

A man who was conned, having followed what happened, has refused to have his name used because he said that the people back home didn’t know that he was in debt, or that he was penniless because he’d entrusted his money to an inyanga. He said that he was walking around Durban and took a newspaper from a street vendor.

“I looked at the paper and I turned to the back sections in order to find out how I could be cured of my bad luck. At the back it said that everything could be cured by me going to an inyanga,” said this man. 

The man said that when he arrived at the inyanga’s and explained the problem he had at home, the inyanga said that there was bad muthi at the man’s homestead – and that he should bring R450 to him to sort it out.

“I brought this money and he then gave me an envelope which he said contained muthi. He said that when the muthi was used by me at home everything would come right, because the muthi would enter with me. He said that it was muthi to remove bad luck. When I opened the envelope I found R100. When I asked the inyanga about this he said that the ancestors had long been wanting to give me luck, but they didn’t know to whom to give it,” he explained.

He said that he went to buy something with the note, and it worked.

“After this I was taken into the inyanga’s office, blindfolded and struck by hands before I was told to open my eyes. When I opened them I saw a pile of money. The inyanga said that this money was all mine, but that I must first get a lion’s skin in which to gather up this money,” he explained.

The man said that he said it was impossible for him to get a lion’s skin. The inyanga said that there were people he knew who could get it, and that the man must bring R8000 in order to buy it.

 “I actually went and borrowed this money and we went to go and fetch the skin. I didn’t see from home we were given the skin, as the door was opened only a crack. The inyanga then said that he needed R5000 for a cow to be sacrificed to the ancestors. I withdrew R2000. He said that I should bring R50 000 to gather the money but I gave him R8000,” he explained.

The man said that he was told that the money was sufficient, but began to suspect that there was some trickery going on. When he asked for his money he was told to wait 90 days and then return to fetch it.

“At this point it was said that I mustn’t tell a soul about this because my family (and I) would be murdered. I ended up reporting it to the police,” he explained.

 Captain Khephu Ndlovu said that this inyanga had been charged with theft and fraud.

“People are warned about these fake izinyanga, and the police are cracking down on them because this one who was arrested is the fourth in two weeks here in Durban,” said Ndlovu.

Man conned out of R45 000 and left with nothing but a sheet

Tuesday 13 March 2012 – Isolezwe

Front-page headline: Fake inyanga conned him out of R45 000, and all he has left is a sheet

Caption: Mr Nkosinathi Shange of Ngwavuma is stuck with this white sheet that he’s holding, after being conned out of R45 000 in Durban yesterday. A fake inyanga disappeared with his work pension, promising that he would go home with it and return shortly with much more.

3^rd page Headline: A man who wanted to be rich is now left gapingly helpless

by Simphiwe Ndwandwe

A man from Ngwavuma, who went hungry to get rich quickly, is now left gapingly helpless with a white sheet, saying that the R45 000 which he took to a fake inyanga from Durban vanished from his sight.

Mr Nkosinathi Shange (29),who yesterday confessed his troubles to police in Durban, was pacing up and down with the white cloth in which he was going to put the money which came back from the inyanga.   

Even if he gets his money back, he has become a laughing-stock as he has been deprived of R45 000 (which was the money he received when quitting his job) which ended up being taken by this inyanga. 

Shange was promised by this inyanga, who was working in the city of Durban, that he could eagerly expect money amounting to R2 million – if he quit his job and brought the money he received from his Provident Fund, which would then be prayed over.

 Shange quit his job in November, waiting all this time for the money to become available, and then brought it to this inyanga so that it could be prayed over – so that he could be turned into a rich man. 

He related this all to the police yesterday, saying that the money came into his account last Friday, and that before the hearth-stones had even cooled he took it all out at a bank in Jozini, soon after which he burnt impepho over it at home. He said that he had not yet said a word to his family about having the money, because he didn’t want to tell them for fear that they would think he was a still just a useless person crying for money.

He said that he started to talk to this inyanga the previous year when he was still living in Mandeni, where they both worked. He said that the inyanga used to take him to the building in which he worked, arriving and talking with his grandfather, who he said used to say everything that needed to be carried out.

“It was this old man’s voice (which the inyanga said was that of my grandfather) which said that I must quite my job so that I could get the R2 million which would make my dreams come true. Suspecting nothing I did exactly as it said. He told me about the money I could make, and then I saw with my own eyes a box full of money that he had. This inyanga then took out R100 from the box and gave it to me, saying that I could get a taxi-ride with it,” said Shange.

Shange said that when he arrived yesterday with the money, the inyanga said that he must not go to the place from which he was working, arriving and saying that he should put the money (and the huge bag which he was carrying and into which he was intending to put the huge piles of money to take home) to one side.

Shange said that the inyanga said he should go and look for a white sheet to use for this purpose instead. When he then tried to contact the inyanga by phone he was either unavailable or his cell was off. He said that he went to the place from which the inyanga worked, but there was no sign of him, and there was a lock hanging on the door of the place where he was supposed to be praying over it. The people working next door to the place denied seeing the inyanga.

Shange kept the cloth that he’d been told to get, shaking it out and then rolling it up, looking like he was on the point of tears. At the police station he was crying, asking how he was going to go home to iNgwavuma.

A spokesperson for the Durban police Captain Khephu Ndlovu, said that this matter is still under investigation. He said that it is an old story, people being conned out of their money because they don’t listen and they don’t tell anyone when they get into this sort of trap. He warned that if there is an inyanga on the sides of Victoria or Prince Edward Roads, and at the Workshop, people must know that their money will disappear because they don’t mess around – they will con someone right out of their money. He said that there have so far been no arrests.