Spell casting python ‘fixing’ World Cup matches seized in South Africa!
By ANITuesday, July 6, 2010
JOHANNESBURG - A Burmese rock python has been seized by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), from a sangoma, who was casting spells at the World Cup in South Africa.
The sangoma, who is a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination and counselling based on ancestral spirits, is said to have been paid by soccer fans to chant a few spells for their team.
“The Cape of Good Hope SPCA in Grassy Park rescued a Burmese Rock Python from a sangoma in Nyanga on 30 June 2010,” 24.com quoted SPCA regional spokesperson Sarah Scarth as saying.
“It is alleged that the snake was illegally transported from (KwaZulu-) Natal to Cape Town specifically for the FIFA World Cup.
“The sangoma is alleged to have accepted money from soccer fans who requested that he communicate to the ancestors and appeal to them to allow their specific football team to progress in the game,” Scarth said.
The snake, which was found to be underweight and suffering from dehydration, mouth-rot and pneumonia, was apparently kept in a shack and car with no food or water.
According to the Daily Sun, sangoma Siyabonga Mthethwa, 25, said that he was “forced” to hand over the snake, named 2010.
“2010 is my snake and I will teach them a lesson. They say a black man can’t carry a snake,” he stated.
Mthethwa alleged that the SPCA was not familiar with sangomas, and that the snake will bring a lot of problems to them, as he will not last long without him.
“Everything I said does not make sense to them. I know that he will give them many problems. I will make him disappear or kill him in their care,” he said.
“I know everything about his life. I will go home and bring all my other snakes and see what they will do then,” he added. (ANI)
