The Sunday News
Amanda Ncube and Nokukhanya Moyo, Sunday News Reporters
A HUMAN skeleton has been found in Ndiweni Village in Kezi but surprisingly the bones got stolen by unknown people who left only a few ones which they crushed, in what villagers suspect could be linked to witchcraft.
Sunday News visited the area last week, where villagers said the incident has baffled them and were at a loss of words on what could have happened.
The villagers told our news crew that three weeks ago, one of them stumbled upon a human skeleton which was still intact and reported the matter to traditional leaders in the area. Ms Sithandiwe Nyoni, one of the villagers said she saw the bones three weeks ago and the skeleton was still intact.
“I was the one who saw the bones three weeks ago and informed other villagers who also witnessed that it was a skeleton of a human being. It was still intact,” said Ms Nyoni.
“I can confirm that the skeleton was still intact because I took my son there who saw it and even counted the teeth but to our surprise the whole skeleton was removed from where we saw it.”
Another villager said what has made the matter scary was that some clay pots were also later found on the site where the skeleton was.
“We cannot say the bones were taken by animals because after we found them we monitored the area for some days and they were still intact. Then they were taken away and no one wants to speak about it,” said Mrs Langelihle Ncube another villager in the area.
Villagers said the place where the skeleton was found could have been a graveyard but no one in the community has come forward claiming his/her relative was once buried at the place.
“The place where the skeleton was discovered is close to an area where community members dig for soil for construction purposes. What makes us think that the bones were used for ritual purposes is that some of the small bones which were left behind were crushed,” he said.
Chief Nyangazonke said he was confused by what was happening in his area considering that no one knows whose bones they were.
“What is surprising is that the place is a big village but no one knows whose bones they are. In most cases when there are people buried in your area regardless of when they were buried, there are older people who can identify whose grave it is but in this case no one knows. What scares me the most is that no one knows who took the bones and whoever took them I am wondering what made them take the bones. This is a very serious issue which will require serious investigations,” he said.
He said when the bones were first discovered, they consulted the police who also saw the skeleton and did investigations but advised that the community should just rebury them.
