Ritualist scoop soil from children's playground

Residents of Bulawayo's Pumula East suburb were yesterday left stunned after a woman entered a local pre-school and scooped a handful of soil for suspected ritual purposes.

Suspicious residents effected a citizen's arrest on Shanyirai Nyamachena, 27, of Gwabalanda and her brother Godfrey after they saw her scooping soil from the pre-school's play ground.

The pre-school caretaker Witness Moyo said the incident happened while he was at the shops next to the pre-school.

"We saw a car stopping by the pre-school gate and as we were wondering who it was, a woman entered and scooped soil from the children's playground. Surprised by her actions, I rushed to her and asked what she was doing," he said.

Moyo said Nyamachena told him that she wanted to use the soil to conduct a prayer for her niece and that is when he apprehended her.

"When we apprehended her, a man who was driving their car came out wielding a knife but we took it away from him. Later we realised they were siblings," said Moyo.

Chronicle visited the scene and found a mob of residents detaining the siblings while waiting for the police.  Nyamachena said they were instructed by a prophet to get soil from a pre-school.

"We were instructed to bring soil from a pre-school, borehole water, eggs and white cloth by a prophet for prayers and as I used to stay in Pumula I knew of this pre-school that's why I chose it," said Nyamachena.

She said they wanted to conduct prayers for her 17-year-old niece who she said was never happy.

"My niece is doing her Form Four this year and she is never happy, she looks unsettled and is always worried so we approached a prophet who said we should bring from soil from a pre-school as it was going to help settle her mind," said Nyamachena.

Godfrey denied ever wielding a knife on any resident saying the knife was just in his car. However, residents challenged him on how they could have seen the knife if it had been in the car, leading to him failing to give a convincing response.

Residents were fuming over the issue saying the two were putting their children's lives in danger.

"They came as far as Richmond but chose this particular pre-school, why? There is something fishy about their agenda. If they were genuine why didn't they ask for consent from the pre-school officials," said one of the residents.

The city council-owned pre-school's board chairman Peter Ncube said this could be an act of satanism.

"We have read a lot of stories about such incidents. We no longer know what is happening, there is a lot of satanism taking place. This incident baffles me," he said.

When the Chronicle was leaving the scene, police had arrived and residents demanded that Nyamachena's car be searched.