Police fighting losing battle with 'Satanism' in Mutare

Mutare police have been called on by concerned parents to crackdown on known satanic cults operating in Mutare.

This comes after last week's Fern Valley murder, in which a 12-year-old Hillcrest Preparatory School girl was butchered in cold blood by a self-confessed Satanist who went on to suck her blood.

The police have indicated that their hands are tied. They have said, at law, there is no legal statutes that compel them to arrest suspects on Satanism allegations.

The Officer Commanding Police in Manicaland (Operations), Assistant Commissioner David Mahoya, said, instead, it was an offence to label someone a Satanist or a witch under the Witchcraft Suppression Act.

Ass Comm Mahoya said their hands were tied up and he could not order an operation against suspected Satanists. He urged parents to closely monitor their children and teach them not to talk to strangers.

"These things are spiritual and as the police we deal with evidence, tangible evidence and not spiritual confessions. Someone can come up and say I am a Satanist and I am responsible for the road accident that killed 10 people yesterday. As police, it is not possible for us to arrest that person because of that confession. It's just difficult," he said.

Church leaders have also weighed in saying the world was at war with Satanists who are manifesting in different forms.

They said even though there were no laws to support the arrest of suspected Satanists, the war with demons was not fought in the courts or in the police holding cells, but it is a spiritual one.

The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland, Bishop Elson Jazaki, said Satanists were demons which can not be exorcised by arrests, but by the blood of Jesus.

He said it was high time people repented because the forces of darkness were increasing by the day.

Vice president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association, Mr Nelson Jambaya, said Satanism cases were on the increase and the association was in the process of lobbying the government to enact laws to suppress the evil practice.

He said those who confess or are suspected of practising Satanism must be arrested and the Traditional Healers association would render assistance.

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