SOUTH AFRICA - Strong Medicine
Chief Wilson Nemalale heads a troubled village in Venda. In February 2000, a 4-year old girl disappeared. In August that year residents found a skeleton they believed to be hers. Police sent the bones away for forensic testing.
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: When she was alive, her mother tied this string around her neck. It was the string that proved to us it was the child called Sarina Ndou.
After almost two years, they have scientific proof...The bones indeed belonged to Sarina Ndou. But the tests can't tell them how she died. Her skeleton was found almost intact...only missing hands and feet.
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: It's obvious that a jackal or animal...chewed off this part. Here are the tooth marks. It was chewed while the bones were still fresh...before they dried out. If it was dry when chewed, it would have cracked.
The bones were found together, even the ones chewed by wild animals...but no trace of the many tiny hand and foot bones were ever found...
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: You can't see if it was cut, because if I dislocate a hand, it will separate...you won't see if it was cut.
Ancient beliefs hold that hands, feet, and any other human part can be used in the making of powerful medicines - much more powerful than widely used mixtures containing plants or animals. The people of Malale Village believe that Sarina Ndou was dismembered because someone in their midst needed such strong medicine...
TITLE: STRONG MEDICINE
VIS DAM & VENDA
The sacred lake Funduzi in the heart of former Venda the site of an important annual ritual in times gone by. Tribal elders would select a young virgin who would willingly sacrifice herself to the ancestors. For her family, her selection that year would be a great honour. They would help, hold her down, while the village chief and resident inyanga cut her in strictly prescribed ways. Her flesh and blood, mixed with special roots and herbs would make a powerful potion. The medicine would be sprinkled around fields and homes to strengthen leaders and ensure a good crop. The virgin's screams would awaken the ancestors...call forth their blessing. Her life-force, selflessly offered, would protect the village from harm for another year. Scenes of ritual sacrifice were played out in villages across what used to be rural Venda...
VIS JOBURG
But times have changed... A sacred custom, once performed to benefit all, has now turned into killing for personal gain. Ritual sacrifice has become the brutal harvesting of human bodyparts for paying clients.
No-one knows how extensive the trade in human parts is...However, the conversations we record build a picture of a trade that is lucrative and routine for the participants...
VIS ELOFF STREET
Our investigation begins in Johannesburg...in Eloff Street Extension under Faraday Bridge.
VIS UNDER BRIDGE
Its impossible to tell which of the mixtures and bags on offer contain pulverised human specimens. Only forensic testing can distinguish human from animal.
VIS WOMAN SPRINKLING
Vendors prepare for a long day ahead. Some sprinkle their own medicinal potions around their stalls... to ensure good business, and guard against theft.
We supply one of our team with a concealed camera. He will pose as a traditional healer from Venda. His mission: To stock up on supplies of human ingredients.
He approaches a man sitting on his own in the middle of the market..
.
UPS ALPHEUS: Around here do you know any place or person whom I can go to?
UPS TUMBA: Yes, like those who work at hospitals?
UPS ALPHEUS: Yes...PAUSE...yes, it's best to...
UPS TUMBA: Yes, because there you can even get human blood. Everything...people who've been hit by cars...
UPS ALPHEUS: Most importantly, I don't want anyone who died of diseases, I want someone who died by accident...
UPS TUMBA: Yes, those who were hit by cars are good...
UPS ALPHEUS: Now, don't you know anyone who can organise for me?
UPS TUMBA: Just sit here, I'm coming...(DISAPPEARS...cut to...COMES BACK)
The man who tells us to call him Mr Tumba, disappears for a few short moments Then brings back two bones he claims are human...
TUMBA HANDS OVER BONE UPS ALPHEUS: He says it's from a white person?
UPS TUMBA: Yes.
UPS ALPHEUS: From where in the body?
UPS TUMBA: NOT CLEAR
UPS ALPHEUS: How much does he want?
UPS TUMBA: This one if R40 and this one R60
Mr Tumba kindly wraps our purchases in a piece of newspaper...
UPS ALPHEUS: This man, does he know how the owner of this bone died?
UPS TUMBA: No
UPS ALPHEUS: Where did he get it from?
UPS TUMBA: No...I'll connect you to him...when you phone me...when I've contacted him, then I'll tell you when to come...when I'm ready...
VIS UNDER BRIDGE
To make contact with Mr Tumba's suppliers, we have to wait a couple of days...We're convinced that if we bide our time, we'll eventually be led straight to the source of the supply chain.
VIS VENDA GEN
Meanwhile, we resume our inquiries in Venda to find out where human parts come from...and where the belief in their medicinal power originates.
We find that mutilated live victims is often the source of the most sought-after parts.
The story of self-appointed healer Ernest Mabuda made headlines in October 1998. It came to light that hed butchered his own 22-month old baby...because he wanted to make money off her bodyparts.
VIS MANHUYA IN FRONT OF COURT
This man secured Mabuda's life sentence. The prosecution team had never seen anything like it...
V/U UPS BETHUEL MANHUYA: They found the body of the child with the head having been cut, the hands, the legs, the arms...and also the intestines were also removed...
ON CAM UPS BETHUEL MANHUYA: Mabuda is a traditional healer and he believed within two weeks or so he shall have obtained a muti which will help to cure AIDS.
VIS INSECT IN HAND SEQUENCE
Like most traditional healers, Mabuda claimed he received the recipe for his cure in a vision. In his dream he saw himself holding two insects. The small one represented his baby...the bigger one, her mother...his girlfriend.
Whichever one flew away, would be the one whose life he'd spare...
UPS SARAH: He tied her up and said COME AND HOLD HER.
I felt I couldnt do it...
I couldn't hold the baby down.
Then he stood up and took an ax, knocked me over the head and said HOLD THE BABY.
VIS VENDA & RIVER
Mabuda had forced Sarah to come with him, hoping she'd be his accomplice. When she didn't play along, he beat her into submission. All day he made mother and child walk over mountains and valleys...searching for a place where he intended to enact his vision...finally they reached a spot so secluded, that no-one would have heard their cries for help...
UPS SARAH: I tried to close my eyes, but he told me to look...
I watched as he cut her throat. Blood streamed. He collected it...
VIS NIGHT RECREATION WITH CALABASH
Night fell as Mabuda worked on his baby. Sarah was reeling. Blood streamed from the head-wound where Mabuda had hit her. Methodically Mabuda collected blood from both his victims.
UPS SARAH: He collected the blood, put the calabash aside...held the baby...cut her piece by piece...hands cut off...legs cut off...genitals...I felt bitter...the baby cried...until she fell silent, as he cut her open...
then it dawned on me that he had really killed her.
UPS SARAH: He wrapped the parts in plastic bags and stuffed them into the bag hed brought along. Even the calabash with the blood was wrapped in plastic and put in the bag.
VIS NIGHT WALKING IN FOREST
Later Mabuda was to mix the blood with a bottle of cola and drink it with a piece of bread on the side. This concoction, he believed, would fortify him against the police when they came...
UPS SARAH: I dragged myself along. At that point Id already given in.
I was sure I would also be killed. I wasn't afraid anymore.
I wasn't scared of him. I'd already seen death.
The one I was carrying at that moment was already dead.
VIS VENDA GEN
The day after the murder, Sarah was arrested with Mabuda. The court never doubted her innocence. She became a state witness...her testimony put Mabuda away for life.
To this day, the people of Venda regard Sarah with suspicion and fear. How did she survive? How did she walk away free after being part of such a slaughter? People believe that through the blood and bodyparts of the baby she held down, she now has access to supernatural dark powers...
Sarah recently moved away from her home to start a new life, far away from Venda...it's the only way she can ever hope to recover from the stigma of her babys killing.
VIS RONNIE FISHING
Not so lucky is 32-year old Ronnie Maluleke...Two years ago he got sick his family calls it an ancestral illness. Only an inyanga could help. His father took him to a local healer.
UPS FATHER: The woman said "I will give him medicine to vomit, because the illness seemingly starts here and goes up to his head...
UPS RONNIE: They gave me half a mug of medicine. I started vomiting and it cleansed me internally.
VIS NIGHT ATTACK RECREATION
The cleansing carried on for days. At some point Ronnie felt so ill he went outside to vomit. In those moonlit moments his life changed forever...
UPS RONNIE: Then I met these three people...one passed me and two followed behind...the two grabbed me and the other one joined them...I was very scared and my voice couldn't come out, because of the medicine. They grabbed me and threw me to the ground. They pinned me down while the other ripped my trousers off.
VIS NIGHT ATTACK RECREATION
While two of the men held Ronnie down, the third went to work with a knife at his groin. Ronnie felt them mutilating him. They were still busy, when an approaching car scared them off. They left him for dead in the road.
UPS RONNIE: I struggled to pull my trousers up and crawled from the spot...I was afraid they might come back.
VIS LYING IN THE REEDS
For four days Ronnie drifted in and out of consciousness in the reeds where he lay hiding.
UPS RONNIE: With every breath, I bled profusely.
Flies were crawling all over me.
I tied my shoe laces around my trouser legs to try and keep them out...
UPS RONNIE: I noticed my wound had maggots. I reached the stream and washed myself.
And then I struggled to the village. I slipped, fell and stumbled.
Then, I came across a young boy.
VIS BOY WITH WIRE CAR
The young boy ran for help. Someone came and took Ronnie to hospital. Once his wounds were cleaned, and he regained some strength, he realised that theyd sliced off a testicle. He spent 21 days in intensive care, where his father finally found him...
UPS FATHER: I was very hurt when I heard the news..."did they take my son's testicle to go and make profit out of it while he's still alive...
UPS RONNIE: They cut you alive...when you scream it means the bodypart will function...
UPS FATHER: He's suffering while they strengthen their business with it. Why did you take it?
I'd like them to explain it face to face...
UPS RONNIE: Maybe they were sent my witchdoctors, or by business people...those are the muti killers...
ADBREAK
VIS JESUS MOUNTAIN IN MAWHELERENG
Queen Mokebe from Mahwelereng in Potgietersrus was buried on a Saturday in January. Shed committed suicide. No-one knows why. The fact of her death was hard enough for her family to deal with. On Monday they heard that her grave had been disturbed. Her father rushed to the cemetery to see what was going on...
UPS LESIBA MOKEBE: When we buried her, wed put flowers on the grave...when we went to see the grave again it was messy...whoever had been digging, was in a hurry. Clothes that had been on her body were strewn around
V/U UPS SUPT TOLLIE VREUGDENBURG: We suspected the body would have been stolen...that there'd be no body inside. It was a surprise when we got to the bottom and saw what we saw...
UPS SUPT TOLLIE VREUGDENBURG: The lid of the coffin had been disturbed...when we lifted the coffin out of the grave, we found the whole body had been mutilated...the head, the arms and private parts...as well as her breasts...were cut off.
VIS CEMETERY
A second autopsy showed that even Queen's intestines had been removed.
UPS LESIBA MOKEBE: It hasn't been easy...every now and then I think back to that day of her second funeral. Then I wonder what kind of person does that to dead bodies...
VIS INSIDE GRAVE
Queen Mokebe was buried a second time. It's unlikely her family will ever know who did this to her.
VIS HEALERS SINGING AND DANCING, GOAT BROUGHT FOR SLAUGHTER
It was clear during our travels through the Limpopo Province that ancient beliefs are as alive today as ever. But these beliefs and the people who hold them are increasingly manipulated for financial gain. The Congress of Traditional Healers is waging war on corrupt inyangas who exploit people's beliefs.
UPS MATIHVA: I don't want to hide the point...they used to tell young healers that if you slaughter a person for fat, for what what, you'll get rich....
VIS GOAT SLAUGHTER
The only sacrificial slaughter Takalani Mathiba will condone these days, is that of animals.
Different parts are cut out and mixed with medicine. Each part has a unique ritual significance.
Human parts supposedly work in a similar way...
UPS MATHIVA: People used to believe if you slaughter a person and take his human flesh...meat and put it in your car, your car will never get broken and your car will never get stolen.
UPS MINNAAR: The whole hand is dried and sold to a client, maybe a businessman, who wants success in his business, and that hand would be buried at his door, upside down...the belief is that the hand is calling customers into the shop...the knuckles of the finger are used, are dried and crushed and the powder is then used in a salve or in mixed with the other herbs...the skin is sometimes taken from the buttocks, because it has a layers of bodyfat...and the bodyfat is dried and used in a salve...the brain and the skull as the receptacle from which the brain is then eaten
VIS JOHANNESBURG INTO FARADAY
Whatever parts are used in medicine will be determined by the clients needs and the ancestors instructions to the healer...Purists say the parts must be freshly obtained and be imbued with the life-force of the victim. Parts should be harvested while the victim is screaming this awakens the ancestors and ensures their presence at the healing.
VIS SPY FOOTAGE
What we found in Johannesburg, is that corrupt inyangas are taking advantage of people in need.
Mr Tumba is happy to see us, until we tell him that the bones we'd paid R100 for, are fake theyre cow bones. This we learnt from an anatomy professor.
To make up for selling us very expensive soup bones, Mr Tumba agrees that now is the time to introduce us to his real supplier.
VIS SLOMO PRETTY VUKUTHA
Enter Pretty Vukutha...a cigar-puffing middleman. He represents suppliers from some local hospital or mortuary...despite our many questions he never specifies. All negotiations take place right here under the bridge...Vukutha even signs a receipt for a R400 deposit on a human brain, eye and kneecaps.
Vukutha says he's been selling parts for 10 years and used to be supplied by his own mother who worked at a big local hospital...
UPS VUKUTHA SHOW BONES, EYE, BRAIN
VIS PEOPLE LEAVING SHACK
Our undercover journalist goes to draw the rest of the cash. The asking price is R1800...Vukutha goes along. The specimens are left with a security guard at Faraday market.
VIS VUKUTHA WALKING IN THE STREET
It's time to get details from Vukutha. If the parts are human as he claims, and hes traded for so long, hes routinely breaking the law...
CONFRONT VUKUTHA CAN YOU TELL US WHERE THE PARTS COME FROM? NO COMMENT!
VIS VUKUTHA WALKS OFF
Meanwhile, our inquiries have unearthed what may be a direct source
A mortuary at a medical school.
VIS LEVI IN HIS OFFICE
Talk to Levi Masebe, one of our other contacts suggested. So we do. And we spend a whole day negotiating with Masebe at his office and home. Again, the proceedings are captured on spy camera.
VIS SPY FOOTAGE OF MASEBE UNWRAPPING HAND
Then. over two days in April, we conclude two separate deals with Masebe, in the very specimen museum he's responsible for maintaining at the University. We pay R4000 in total for two human hands...
UPS MASEBE: They are both right hands. Yes, it ends up looking like this, because it's a specimen. Don't be surprised, this stuff's just Vaseline, so that it doesn't get extremely hard. It can stay fresh...so don't be surprised.
UPS ALPHEUS: In future...will you be able to assist me in the next 3 or 4 months...
UPS MASEBE: Yes, I will wait to hear from you.
UPS ALPHEUS: I can call you anytime?
UPS MASEBE: Yep.
UPS ALPHEUS: You don't perhaps have insides?
UPS MASEBE: I do, there's lots of them...
VIS WALKING INTO SPEC ASS OFFICE WITH COOLBOX & TAKE OUT HAND
Buying and possessing a human bodypart is a contravention of the Human Tissues Act. Up to now, the penalties have been minor, although the offence is seen as serious. Soon new laws will severely penalise offenders.
The law aside, medical schools and mortuaries have strict rules about how bodies should be treated. Even after dissection they should be handled with dignity and respect.
VIS MEDUNSA ENTRANCE INTO OFFICE OF MASEBE & INTRODUCING OURSELVES
Our next step is to return the specimens and confront the dealer. We plan to give the institution an opportunity to respond.
As on almost every Monday morning for more than 15 years, Levi Masebe is right behind his desk when we arrive. We carry with us the icebox containing our purchases.
CONFRONT MASEBE
UPS AML: We'd like to talk to you about your involvement in this trade and for how long you've been doing this
UPS MASEBE: OK
UPS AML: You don't seem to be worried at all that you've been involved in a criminal offence...why are you not worried about this?
UPS MASEBE: I didn't sell them...fact is that, this man, because I know him...he told me the story of his old father, so I just give him, because I know him...it's just a favour...
UPS AML: A favour at R4000?
UPS MASEBE: I didn't charge him, he said he'll give the money, I didn't charge him...
UPS MASEBE: Because these things, we're supposed to burn them...you see, because they been used already we don't use them anymore, we just burn them to ashes...that is why I'm now busy with this cremation...we are cremating them
UPS AML: Are you saying you've never been briefed about the laws pertaining to the human body?
UPS MASEBE: Not, not in this department...
VIS SLOMO MASEBES FACE
Masebe's superiors didnt agree. They had him arrested immediately on a charge of theft and corpse violation. He's out on bail of R1000.
VIS BOY RINGS BELL TO ANNOUNCE MEETING
In Malale Village the community is called to a meeting. Two years ago one of their children went missing. They want justice, before they bury the remains of Sarina Ndou. If they can't have her body intact, recover her missing hands and feet, they want somebody to pay. But no suspects have been arrested.
UPS REBECCA: The child was my granddaughter...she was murdered.
UPS ALICE LODZI TSHILANDE: For two years, we havent had peace. We cant even go away to visit, because if we come back, we may find our children missing.
VIS GIRL GHOST SEQUENCE
In the bodypart trade, there are only victims.
Clients are led to believe they can buy powerful cures for anything. They are so desperate for help and better luck that in the process innocent people are killed.
Communities are torn apart by suspicion and fear.
Children lose their freedom.
Even for the dead, theres no peace
Chief Wilson Nemalale heads a troubled village in Venda. In February 2000, a 4-year old girl disappeared. In August that year residents found a skeleton they believed to be hers. Police sent the bones away for forensic testing.
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: When she was alive, her mother tied this string around her neck. It was the string that proved to us it was the child called Sarina Ndou.
After almost two years, they have scientific proof...The bones indeed belonged to Sarina Ndou. But the tests can't tell them how she died. Her skeleton was found almost intact...only missing hands and feet.
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: It's obvious that a jackal or animal...chewed off this part. Here are the tooth marks. It was chewed while the bones were still fresh...before they dried out. If it was dry when chewed, it would have cracked.
The bones were found together, even the ones chewed by wild animals...but no trace of the many tiny hand and foot bones were ever found...
UPS WILSON NEMALALE: You can't see if it was cut, because if I dislocate a hand, it will separate...you won't see if it was cut.
Ancient beliefs hold that hands, feet, and any other human part can be used in the making of powerful medicines - much more powerful than widely used mixtures containing plants or animals. The people of Malale Village believe that Sarina Ndou was dismembered because someone in their midst needed such strong medicine...
TITLE: STRONG MEDICINE
VIS DAM & VENDA
The sacred lake Funduzi in the heart of former Venda the site of an important annual ritual in times gone by. Tribal elders would select a young virgin who would willingly sacrifice herself to the ancestors. For her family, her selection that year would be a great honour. They would help, hold her down, while the village chief and resident inyanga cut her in strictly prescribed ways. Her flesh and blood, mixed with special roots and herbs would make a powerful potion. The medicine would be sprinkled around fields and homes to strengthen leaders and ensure a good crop. The virgin's screams would awaken the ancestors...call forth their blessing. Her life-force, selflessly offered, would protect the village from harm for another year. Scenes of ritual sacrifice were played out in villages across what used to be rural Venda...
VIS JOBURG
But times have changed... A sacred custom, once performed to benefit all, has now turned into killing for personal gain. Ritual sacrifice has become the brutal harvesting of human bodyparts for paying clients.
No-one knows how extensive the trade in human parts is...However, the conversations we record build a picture of a trade that is lucrative and routine for the participants...
VIS ELOFF STREET
Our investigation begins in Johannesburg...in Eloff Street Extension under Faraday Bridge.
VIS UNDER BRIDGE
Its impossible to tell which of the mixtures and bags on offer contain pulverised human specimens. Only forensic testing can distinguish human from animal.
VIS WOMAN SPRINKLING
Vendors prepare for a long day ahead. Some sprinkle their own medicinal potions around their stalls... to ensure good business, and guard against theft.
We supply one of our team with a concealed camera. He will pose as a traditional healer from Venda. His mission: To stock up on supplies of human ingredients.
He approaches a man sitting on his own in the middle of the market..
.
UPS ALPHEUS: Around here do you know any place or person whom I can go to?
UPS TUMBA: Yes, like those who work at hospitals?
UPS ALPHEUS: Yes...PAUSE...yes, it's best to...
UPS TUMBA: Yes, because there you can even get human blood. Everything...people who've been hit by cars...
UPS ALPHEUS: Most importantly, I don't want anyone who died of diseases, I want someone who died by accident...
UPS TUMBA: Yes, those who were hit by cars are good...
UPS ALPHEUS: Now, don't you know anyone who can organise for me?
UPS TUMBA: Just sit here, I'm coming...(DISAPPEARS...cut to...COMES BACK)
The man who tells us to call him Mr Tumba, disappears for a few short moments Then brings back two bones he claims are human...
TUMBA HANDS OVER BONE UPS ALPHEUS: He says it's from a white person?
UPS TUMBA: Yes.
UPS ALPHEUS: From where in the body?
UPS TUMBA: NOT CLEAR
UPS ALPHEUS: How much does he want?
UPS TUMBA: This one if R40 and this one R60
Mr Tumba kindly wraps our purchases in a piece of newspaper...
UPS ALPHEUS: This man, does he know how the owner of this bone died?
UPS TUMBA: No
UPS ALPHEUS: Where did he get it from?
UPS TUMBA: No...I'll connect you to him...when you phone me...when I've contacted him, then I'll tell you when to come...when I'm ready...
VIS UNDER BRIDGE
To make contact with Mr Tumba's suppliers, we have to wait a couple of days...We're convinced that if we bide our time, we'll eventually be led straight to the source of the supply chain.
VIS VENDA GEN
Meanwhile, we resume our inquiries in Venda to find out where human parts come from...and where the belief in their medicinal power originates.
We find that mutilated live victims is often the source of the most sought-after parts.
The story of self-appointed healer Ernest Mabuda made headlines in October 1998. It came to light that hed butchered his own 22-month old baby...because he wanted to make money off her bodyparts.
VIS MANHUYA IN FRONT OF COURT
This man secured Mabuda's life sentence. The prosecution team had never seen anything like it...
V/U UPS BETHUEL MANHUYA: They found the body of the child with the head having been cut, the hands, the legs, the arms...and also the intestines were also removed...
ON CAM UPS BETHUEL MANHUYA: Mabuda is a traditional healer and he believed within two weeks or so he shall have obtained a muti which will help to cure AIDS.
VIS INSECT IN HAND SEQUENCE
Like most traditional healers, Mabuda claimed he received the recipe for his cure in a vision. In his dream he saw himself holding two insects. The small one represented his baby...the bigger one, her mother...his girlfriend.
Whichever one flew away, would be the one whose life he'd spare...
UPS SARAH: He tied her up and said COME AND HOLD HER.
I felt I couldnt do it...
I couldn't hold the baby down.
Then he stood up and took an ax, knocked me over the head and said HOLD THE BABY.
VIS VENDA & RIVER
Mabuda had forced Sarah to come with him, hoping she'd be his accomplice. When she didn't play along, he beat her into submission. All day he made mother and child walk over mountains and valleys...searching for a place where he intended to enact his vision...finally they reached a spot so secluded, that no-one would have heard their cries for help...
UPS SARAH: I tried to close my eyes, but he told me to look...
I watched as he cut her throat. Blood streamed. He collected it...
VIS NIGHT RECREATION WITH CALABASH
Night fell as Mabuda worked on his baby. Sarah was reeling. Blood streamed from the head-wound where Mabuda had hit her. Methodically Mabuda collected blood from both his victims.
UPS SARAH: He collected the blood, put the calabash aside...held the baby...cut her piece by piece...hands cut off...legs cut off...genitals...I felt bitter...the baby cried...until she fell silent, as he cut her open...
then it dawned on me that he had really killed her.
UPS SARAH: He wrapped the parts in plastic bags and stuffed them into the bag hed brought along. Even the calabash with the blood was wrapped in plastic and put in the bag.
VIS NIGHT WALKING IN FOREST
Later Mabuda was to mix the blood with a bottle of cola and drink it with a piece of bread on the side. This concoction, he believed, would fortify him against the police when they came...
UPS SARAH: I dragged myself along. At that point Id already given in.
I was sure I would also be killed. I wasn't afraid anymore.
I wasn't scared of him. I'd already seen death.
The one I was carrying at that moment was already dead.
VIS VENDA GEN
The day after the murder, Sarah was arrested with Mabuda. The court never doubted her innocence. She became a state witness...her testimony put Mabuda away for life.
To this day, the people of Venda regard Sarah with suspicion and fear. How did she survive? How did she walk away free after being part of such a slaughter? People believe that through the blood and bodyparts of the baby she held down, she now has access to supernatural dark powers...
Sarah recently moved away from her home to start a new life, far away from Venda...it's the only way she can ever hope to recover from the stigma of her babys killing.
VIS RONNIE FISHING
Not so lucky is 32-year old Ronnie Maluleke...Two years ago he got sick his family calls it an ancestral illness. Only an inyanga could help. His father took him to a local healer.
UPS FATHER: The woman said "I will give him medicine to vomit, because the illness seemingly starts here and goes up to his head...
UPS RONNIE: They gave me half a mug of medicine. I started vomiting and it cleansed me internally.
VIS NIGHT ATTACK RECREATION
The cleansing carried on for days. At some point Ronnie felt so ill he went outside to vomit. In those moonlit moments his life changed forever...
UPS RONNIE: Then I met these three people...one passed me and two followed behind...the two grabbed me and the other one joined them...I was very scared and my voice couldn't come out, because of the medicine. They grabbed me and threw me to the ground. They pinned me down while the other ripped my trousers off.
VIS NIGHT ATTACK RECREATION
While two of the men held Ronnie down, the third went to work with a knife at his groin. Ronnie felt them mutilating him. They were still busy, when an approaching car scared them off. They left him for dead in the road.
UPS RONNIE: I struggled to pull my trousers up and crawled from the spot...I was afraid they might come back.
VIS LYING IN THE REEDS
For four days Ronnie drifted in and out of consciousness in the reeds where he lay hiding.
UPS RONNIE: With every breath, I bled profusely.
Flies were crawling all over me.
I tied my shoe laces around my trouser legs to try and keep them out...
UPS RONNIE: I noticed my wound had maggots. I reached the stream and washed myself.
And then I struggled to the village. I slipped, fell and stumbled.
Then, I came across a young boy.
VIS BOY WITH WIRE CAR
The young boy ran for help. Someone came and took Ronnie to hospital. Once his wounds were cleaned, and he regained some strength, he realised that theyd sliced off a testicle. He spent 21 days in intensive care, where his father finally found him...
UPS FATHER: I was very hurt when I heard the news..."did they take my son's testicle to go and make profit out of it while he's still alive...
UPS RONNIE: They cut you alive...when you scream it means the bodypart will function...
UPS FATHER: He's suffering while they strengthen their business with it. Why did you take it?
I'd like them to explain it face to face...
UPS RONNIE: Maybe they were sent my witchdoctors, or by business people...those are the muti killers...
ADBREAK
VIS JESUS MOUNTAIN IN MAWHELERENG
Queen Mokebe from Mahwelereng in Potgietersrus was buried on a Saturday in January. Shed committed suicide. No-one knows why. The fact of her death was hard enough for her family to deal with. On Monday they heard that her grave had been disturbed. Her father rushed to the cemetery to see what was going on...
UPS LESIBA MOKEBE: When we buried her, wed put flowers on the grave...when we went to see the grave again it was messy...whoever had been digging, was in a hurry. Clothes that had been on her body were strewn around
V/U UPS SUPT TOLLIE VREUGDENBURG: We suspected the body would have been stolen...that there'd be no body inside. It was a surprise when we got to the bottom and saw what we saw...
UPS SUPT TOLLIE VREUGDENBURG: The lid of the coffin had been disturbed...when we lifted the coffin out of the grave, we found the whole body had been mutilated...the head, the arms and private parts...as well as her breasts...were cut off.
VIS CEMETERY
A second autopsy showed that even Queen's intestines had been removed.
UPS LESIBA MOKEBE: It hasn't been easy...every now and then I think back to that day of her second funeral. Then I wonder what kind of person does that to dead bodies...
VIS INSIDE GRAVE
Queen Mokebe was buried a second time. It's unlikely her family will ever know who did this to her.
VIS HEALERS SINGING AND DANCING, GOAT BROUGHT FOR SLAUGHTER
It was clear during our travels through the Limpopo Province that ancient beliefs are as alive today as ever. But these beliefs and the people who hold them are increasingly manipulated for financial gain. The Congress of Traditional Healers is waging war on corrupt inyangas who exploit people's beliefs.
UPS MATIHVA: I don't want to hide the point...they used to tell young healers that if you slaughter a person for fat, for what what, you'll get rich....
VIS GOAT SLAUGHTER
The only sacrificial slaughter Takalani Mathiba will condone these days, is that of animals.
Different parts are cut out and mixed with medicine. Each part has a unique ritual significance.
Human parts supposedly work in a similar way...
UPS MATHIVA: People used to believe if you slaughter a person and take his human flesh...meat and put it in your car, your car will never get broken and your car will never get stolen.
UPS MINNAAR: The whole hand is dried and sold to a client, maybe a businessman, who wants success in his business, and that hand would be buried at his door, upside down...the belief is that the hand is calling customers into the shop...the knuckles of the finger are used, are dried and crushed and the powder is then used in a salve or in mixed with the other herbs...the skin is sometimes taken from the buttocks, because it has a layers of bodyfat...and the bodyfat is dried and used in a salve...the brain and the skull as the receptacle from which the brain is then eaten
VIS JOHANNESBURG INTO FARADAY
Whatever parts are used in medicine will be determined by the clients needs and the ancestors instructions to the healer...Purists say the parts must be freshly obtained and be imbued with the life-force of the victim. Parts should be harvested while the victim is screaming this awakens the ancestors and ensures their presence at the healing.
VIS SPY FOOTAGE
What we found in Johannesburg, is that corrupt inyangas are taking advantage of people in need.
Mr Tumba is happy to see us, until we tell him that the bones we'd paid R100 for, are fake theyre cow bones. This we learnt from an anatomy professor.
To make up for selling us very expensive soup bones, Mr Tumba agrees that now is the time to introduce us to his real supplier.
VIS SLOMO PRETTY VUKUTHA
Enter Pretty Vukutha...a cigar-puffing middleman. He represents suppliers from some local hospital or mortuary...despite our many questions he never specifies. All negotiations take place right here under the bridge...Vukutha even signs a receipt for a R400 deposit on a human brain, eye and kneecaps.
Vukutha says he's been selling parts for 10 years and used to be supplied by his own mother who worked at a big local hospital...
UPS VUKUTHA SHOW BONES, EYE, BRAIN
VIS PEOPLE LEAVING SHACK
Our undercover journalist goes to draw the rest of the cash. The asking price is R1800...Vukutha goes along. The specimens are left with a security guard at Faraday market.
VIS VUKUTHA WALKING IN THE STREET
It's time to get details from Vukutha. If the parts are human as he claims, and hes traded for so long, hes routinely breaking the law...
CONFRONT VUKUTHA CAN YOU TELL US WHERE THE PARTS COME FROM? NO COMMENT!
VIS VUKUTHA WALKS OFF
Meanwhile, our inquiries have unearthed what may be a direct source
A mortuary at a medical school.
VIS LEVI IN HIS OFFICE
Talk to Levi Masebe, one of our other contacts suggested. So we do. And we spend a whole day negotiating with Masebe at his office and home. Again, the proceedings are captured on spy camera.
VIS SPY FOOTAGE OF MASEBE UNWRAPPING HAND
Then. over two days in April, we conclude two separate deals with Masebe, in the very specimen museum he's responsible for maintaining at the University. We pay R4000 in total for two human hands...
UPS MASEBE: They are both right hands. Yes, it ends up looking like this, because it's a specimen. Don't be surprised, this stuff's just Vaseline, so that it doesn't get extremely hard. It can stay fresh...so don't be surprised.
UPS ALPHEUS: In future...will you be able to assist me in the next 3 or 4 months...
UPS MASEBE: Yes, I will wait to hear from you.
UPS ALPHEUS: I can call you anytime?
UPS MASEBE: Yep.
UPS ALPHEUS: You don't perhaps have insides?
UPS MASEBE: I do, there's lots of them...
VIS WALKING INTO SPEC ASS OFFICE WITH COOLBOX & TAKE OUT HAND
Buying and possessing a human bodypart is a contravention of the Human Tissues Act. Up to now, the penalties have been minor, although the offence is seen as serious. Soon new laws will severely penalise offenders.
The law aside, medical schools and mortuaries have strict rules about how bodies should be treated. Even after dissection they should be handled with dignity and respect.
VIS MEDUNSA ENTRANCE INTO OFFICE OF MASEBE & INTRODUCING OURSELVES
Our next step is to return the specimens and confront the dealer. We plan to give the institution an opportunity to respond.
As on almost every Monday morning for more than 15 years, Levi Masebe is right behind his desk when we arrive. We carry with us the icebox containing our purchases.
CONFRONT MASEBE
UPS AML: We'd like to talk to you about your involvement in this trade and for how long you've been doing this
UPS MASEBE: OK
UPS AML: You don't seem to be worried at all that you've been involved in a criminal offence...why are you not worried about this?
UPS MASEBE: I didn't sell them...fact is that, this man, because I know him...he told me the story of his old father, so I just give him, because I know him...it's just a favour...
UPS AML: A favour at R4000?
UPS MASEBE: I didn't charge him, he said he'll give the money, I didn't charge him...
UPS MASEBE: Because these things, we're supposed to burn them...you see, because they been used already we don't use them anymore, we just burn them to ashes...that is why I'm now busy with this cremation...we are cremating them
UPS AML: Are you saying you've never been briefed about the laws pertaining to the human body?
UPS MASEBE: Not, not in this department...
VIS SLOMO MASEBES FACE
Masebe's superiors didnt agree. They had him arrested immediately on a charge of theft and corpse violation. He's out on bail of R1000.
VIS BOY RINGS BELL TO ANNOUNCE MEETING
In Malale Village the community is called to a meeting. Two years ago one of their children went missing. They want justice, before they bury the remains of Sarina Ndou. If they can't have her body intact, recover her missing hands and feet, they want somebody to pay. But no suspects have been arrested.
UPS REBECCA: The child was my granddaughter...she was murdered.
UPS ALICE LODZI TSHILANDE: For two years, we havent had peace. We cant even go away to visit, because if we come back, we may find our children missing.
VIS GIRL GHOST SEQUENCE
In the bodypart trade, there are only victims.
Clients are led to believe they can buy powerful cures for anything. They are so desperate for help and better luck that in the process innocent people are killed.
Communities are torn apart by suspicion and fear.
Children lose their freedom.
Even for the dead, theres no peace