Violent deaths; 'Our ancestors are sending a message'

Residents of Gwanda attribute the continuous shedding of blood in the town through accidents and stabbing to angry ancestors in need of an urgent traditional appeasement ceremony. The small mining town has in recent weeks been hitting news headlines for all the wrong reasons prompting residents from in and around the town to worry. Following the numerous complaints sent on social media platforms by residents of the town on the increase in violent crime and deaths in the town, Bulawayo24 took a snap survey to get people's opinion on this.

These are some of the most recent news headlines that have come from the town causing all the worries in the people of Gwanda:

"Another stabbing in Gwanda"

"Gwanda Man knifed to death in memory card row"

"Sperm sales in Gwanda"

"Gold buyer stabbed to death in Gwanda"

"THREE men kill Gwanda man over "boring" music"

"Gwanda businessman dies in helicopter crush"

"Policeman stabbed, stoned to death in Gwanda"

"WIFE AND YOUNG LOVER STAB GWANDA HUBBY TO DEATH ... "

"Traffic Cop deliberately run over and killed at Gwanda roadblock"

"Gwanda man allegedly stabs juvenile"

"Gwanda Man stabbed and stoned after failing to pay for sex with prostitute"

"Gwanda tout killed in fight over R8"

Speaking to the residents, the general belief coming from them is that the "town's ancestors are not happy with somethings and need appeasement."

Mr Sydney Mlilo of Spitzkop township was the first one to blame the town's woes on a superstitious belief that the ancestors of Gwanda are not happy with the administration of the town and need urgent appeasement to halt the deaths. According to Mlilo, the town administrators are neglecting the ancestors of the town by even building houses on top of well known old burial sites.

"We have a lot of stands that have been pegged on well known cemeteries of our fore fathers and nothing was done to sort out the areas before the graves were tempered with and that is what is making the ancestors angry," he said.

True to his assertion, the Ministry of Construction complex housing the Resident Minister's offices was built on a known cemetery against warnings of local traditional leaders in the mid eighties. Several stands in Spitzkop North Extension are also pegged on a grave site and on numerous occasions human bones have been extracted by people digging foundations for their houses.

Mr Sipho Ndlovu a long time resident of the town's Phakama Township also blamed the town's problems on what he called the loss of culture of Gwanda to the woes and warned that the incidents were complaints by the ancestors and must be listened to "before something big happens".

"We used to have a culture of Gwanda isiJahunda which has been allowed to disappear including the language in preference of a foreign culture. Our ancestors are complaining and someone out there needs to listen before something bad happens," said Ndlovu. "We don't want to get to a stage where you hear that a huge building like the government offices has collapsed with people inside because our city fathers and traditional leaders are ignoring our ancestors' warnings," he added.

Ndlovu also added that the town does not seam to pay any regard to its departed senior residents who are buried and forgotten about.

"We have a lot of our traditional and civic leaders who dedicated all their lives to the growth and development of Gwanda but since they died nothing is being done by our current leaders to remember them. We can't even name schools, streets or townships in their names but prefer names like Gwanda Government School, Spitzkop Township, Garikayi Township or even keep colonial names like Lawley Street and Soudan Street as i f we don't have our own heroes and heroines to remember and honour," added Ndlovu angrily.

One Ms Sithabile Moyo a local vendor blamed the town's problems on the economic problems the country is going through. According to her a lot of people are unemployed and lying idle forcing them to involve in crime.

"A lot of people are not working in Gwanda and as a result find themselves involved in crime as they have nothing to do," she said. Ms Moyo also put blame on the rise in drunkenness in the town. According to her there are too many drinking spots in the town chasing after desperate people who end up finding solace in drowning their problems in beer leading to violent crimes.

"Council is not regulating the bars in the town. Everywhere when a new shop opens its a liquor outlet and most of these bars open as early as 6 in the morning and close at 3 the following morning how do we control a town of drunk citizens," she complained.

Mr Nkululeko Moyo put the blame on an influx of "foreigners" coming into the town to join the informal gold mining and other businesses that come from the gold panning. Mr Moyo did not mince his words to call Gwanda town "Mberengwa South" blaming the town's ills on the influx of people from neighbouring Mberengwa District into the town.

"We have a lot of foreign people from Masvingo and Mberengwa coming into the town hunting for money and can do anything to get money here. Gwanda is now an extension of Mberengwa and they must just change the name and call it Mberengwa South," he said.

Moyo's sentiments were also echoed by Jabulani Sibanda also an informal trader who said that a careful analysis of the perpetrators of the crimes shows that these are people from outside the town coming in from as far afield as Masvingo Province.

"Its mostly not the people of Gwanda carrying out these crimes but people from outside as far off as Masvingo as you can see from the newspaper reports," he said.

"What is even worse is that even the ladies of the night that are filling the town are all from outside Gwanda and forcing crimes and giving our quiet town a bad name," added Sibanda.

A "man of God" who identified himself as Madzibaba Gono of a local maphostori church however blamed the town's problems on the devil hovering around the town calling on all the people of Gwanda to go down in prayer and pray for the town.

"I have always been telling people that this town has a terrible spell of the devil and needs to be cast out before something big happens. We can not live in a town where murdering another human being is as simple a thing as slaughtering a chicken," said Madzibaba Gono.

"We urgently need to get together as churches and call for a day or night of prayer for this town. I was brought to this town by the spirit of God all the way from Karoi because the spirit told me that the people of Gwanda need prayers," he added.

"I have a lot of people I have prayed for here and cast out a spirit of anger in them which if it had not been cast out they also would have committed murder or some other dirty or violent crime. Things are not right in this town," added the Madzibaba.

A local traditional healer known as MaNdlovu based in Spitzkop North suburb of the town also echoed Madzibaba Gono's sentiments saying that the town has an evil spell troubling the people. MaNdlovu claims that the spell is targeting mostly the young people which is a clear message to the elders that the ancestors are complaining.

"There is a general bad spell in the town that needs to be cast out before more of our young people kill each other and rot in prisons. There is an urgent need of a traditional and even religious ceremony to be held in Gwanda to cleanse the town of this evil spell," she said. "If you remember very well early this year the ancestors rolled a huge rock from the top of the mountain sending a warning but no one took that serious, I tell you something big is on its way if we don't do something," added MaNdlovu.

On social network, Princess Precious Faith Zimuto

another long-time Gwanda resident writes "Gwanda kas'lami (my home) I pray for you...the spirit of death shall leave our little town .". Johnson Dube also writes "Gwanda has turned to be a Valley of slaughter,we need divine intervention before we perish."

The Zimbabwe Republic Police in Gwanda could not commit to the belief of an evil spell but attributed the crimes to general lawlessness and warned that it will intensify patrols to curb down the rise of violent crimes in the town. The police are calling on Gwanda residents to make use of their 24 hour Hotline Number (0284) 20139 to report any incidents of crime or would be committed crimes.