There
must be a specific name we should give to this old man. What could he
be thinking? 65-year-old traditional healer from Bezha Village in
Umzingwane district impregnated three teenagers from the village
including his own daughter for whom he paid Z$80 billion bride price.
Angry
villagers on 18 February converged at headman Nkala’s homestead
demanding the arrest of Killion Moyo, describing him as a “sex predator”
from whom their children were not safe.
Nkala said the issue was reported to Esigodini police.
According
to Chronicle News, Moyo fathered two children aged four and three with
his daughter. He warned he would send lightning to strike anyone asking
about his relationships.
A neighbour’s daughter also has Moyo’s
children aged eight and five while another girl who reportedly fled to
neighbouring South Africa, has a three-year-old child with the
traditional healer.
Moyo confessed to a Chronicle News crew that
he had been sleeping with his daughter since 2003 when she was in Grade
Seven, alleging it was a way of appeasing the spirit of his late wife.
Further,
he stunned villagers alleging that he had paid Z$80 billion lobola
(bride price) to his daughter’s grandmother. He also confessed that he
has been sleeping with two other young girls from the village.
A
villager said: “We are afraid of Moyo because he always threatens to
strike people with lightning. He has been involved in a string of child
abuse and rape cases for many years.”
One of the victims aged 23,
told Chronicle that she was in Grade Seven when she was told by her
parents that she was going to stay with Moyo because he was now
responsible for paying her fees.
She said Moyo did not send her to school but started involving her in his rituals.
“Moyo gave me a separate room but at night he would sneak into my blankets and tell me that I was a wife of the spirits.
“He
took my virginity molesting me until I fell pregnant at the age of 14.
He threatened me with lightning if I tried to escape. As it is, I have
two children with him and he does not take care of them,” said the
victim, who has since fled back to her parents.
Her father,
Lazarus Dube said Moyo tricked him into allowing him to marry his
under-age daughter by promising him sweet potatoes and cattle.
“He never brought the cattle or the sweet potatoes,” said Dube.
Moyo told Chronicle that the spirit of his late wife Joyce Mpofu ordered him to marry their daughter. His wife died in 1990.
“My
wife worked with me during my rituals. After her death she tormented me
through dreams, asking me to look for a woman belonging to the family
who was going to take her role,” said Moyo, displaying a toothless grin.
“I
discussed with my mother-in-law, Petheni Moyo-Bhebhe asking her to give
me a wife from her family so that I could solve my problems. She agreed
to replace Joyce with my daughter, now 23-years-old.”
Moyo said
he took his daughter to his shrine, which he calls Elitsheni and
introduced her to the ancestors who approved their marriage.
He
added: “I paid my mother-in-law Z$80 billion lobola. She refused to
inform other relatives about the issue. I then started sleeping with
her.”
