NEWS & ANALYSIS

"Fong Kong tokoloshe!" - Daily Sun

"Residents furious after 'prophet' pulls out ..." - front page lead, July 24 2015

Daily Sun (July 24 2015) - GOGO was happy to pay a prophet to catch a tokoloshe which was keeping her awake.

Today the man is bruised but happy to be alive.

HE WAS NEARLY KILLED WHEN GOGO ACCUSED HIM OF TRYING TO CON HER!

As the man clung to his fong kong tokoloshe with big animal teeth, kasi people beat and poured paraffin on him.

But cops rushed in and saved the “prophet” from a fiery death. Granny Hololo (67) of Marokolong, Hammanskraal, said the sangoma and prophet promised to rid her of a tokoloshe keeping her awake if she gave him R20 000.

She said she paid him R900 for his first visit last month when he took a long snake from her pillow and two rats from clothes she was wearing. “He said my house needed cleansing and I must bring him five cows – or three if I couldn’t afford five.”

This Wednesday she said she gave him R2 000 to remove the tokoloshe “He came and did weird things as if he was in a trance,” said Granny. “He told me not to look at what he was doing. Then he showed me a deadly thing which he said was the tokoloshe that had been living with me.”

But sharp-eyed gogo said he had the thing in his pocket when he arrived.  She called neighbours and they threatened to burn him if he didn’t tell the truth.  The man, Mike Mapododze, told Daily Sun: “My work is legit. I don’t understand why they say I am a false prophet. I gave gogo back some of her money.”

Local sangoma Richard Mahlasela said that the deadly thing was no tokoloshe.  “I urge people to be more alert and seek help from the right people,” he said.

Constable Herman Moremi of the Temba police said the man was treated in hospital, but no case was opened.

Moremi warned people not to trust anybody pretending to be a prophet who could remove rats and tokoloshes. Pensioners were being targeted and could lose money this way, said Moremi.

Victims must call the police and open cases but not take the law into their own hands, he warned.

See the Daily Sun’s new website for more on this and other stories....

 

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