ARMED police in South Africa were unable to prevent a mob stoning a priest to death earlier this week. They stood helplessly by as the mob killed Albert Shai, 65, of Rakoma village outside the attractive garden town of Tzaneen because they believed had “bewitched” a young relative, causing him to commit suicide.
The killing, according to this report, took place after 20-year-old Mohale Shai had been found hanging from a tree on Christmas night. The local community suspected he died because he was bewitched – and blamed it on the priest who is believed to have had connections to a branch of the Apostolic Church.
The remains of Shai's mud-house destroyed after the priest's murder. Picture: Moloko Moloto
Two days later, Shai was “tried” and “sentenced to death” at a mob hearing held at the local soccer field.
His sons, Ronny and Frazer, said they sneaked into the public meeting where the decision to kill their father was taken.
The two called the police, who arrived in two vans within minutes, but they were “instructed” by the community not to interfere. They kept their distance when the mob pelted them with stones.
But in Wednesday police arrested seven people in connection with the killing. They face charges of murder and malicious damage to Shai’s home, which which had been destroyed after his murder.
The Limpopo area, where the killing took place, was hit by a wave of attacks on people accused of witchcraft in the 1990s. Scores were burned alive.
Hat tip: Duncan Withers
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
December 31st, 2010 at 11:51 am
I doubt whether any of us reading this report is able, however imaginative, to understand the horror of this crime. A terrified man, his horrified sons, experiencing religion induced blood lust driven by superstition. Once, of course, the mob begins its path to vengeance the sickness feeds on itself and all reason, compassion and empathy are pushed aside.
This was the fate of thousands of innocent women burned alive as witches, further victims tortured by the Inquistion and in modern times, beyond the Christian religion, the slaughter of those who have different views are seen to be deserving of death.
Happily, christians are no longer able to torture atheists. Deprived of this satisfaction the fundamentalists have to make do with a slavering pleasure at the idea that we will burn in hell. Sick in their minds and, I guess, internally terrified themselves.
December 31st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Broga,
“Happily, Christians are no longer able to torture atheists.”
If they could…. all of us on this page would be in peril…..It would take only a few words from those in the religious hierarchy and those with political power and we would be back to the barbarism that pervaded the inquisition. Unfortunately human nature changes very, very slowly…..Think Mississippi….or Alabama.
The Christians have moved forward….albeit slowly and grudgingly…but not those that practice ………..Islam.
December 31st, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Unfortunatelly, Africa is still largely primitive in its’ beliefs. My African colleague (who is otherwise very educated woman) has collapsed and fell into a coma, when her preacher or priest told her to stop taking her diabetes type II and high blood pressure meds, because “she should have faith in Jesus”. She has regained consciousness since. I doubt she would ever make a complaint, but this guy could probably be easily done for intended murder or manslaughter (this all happened in UK) if she had died. You can take the person out of their culture, but not the culture out of the person.
December 31st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
The Limpopo region is on the southern border of that vast tract of land stretching from Angola to The Indian Ocean, romantically referred to by evangelical Christians in the past as The Beloved Strip. For all the millions of pounds, millions of man-hours, and thousands of lives poured into the effort to evangelize this area, what has been achieved? Gullible people merely swapped one set of superstitions for another, and are now prey to the latest snake-oil salesman who comes along promising them health, prosperity, and eternal salvation. “Plus ca change!”
On a happier note, it appears that there may well be a god after all, and that an old friend of ours – Pastor Martin Ssempa – may well be eating da porridge soon, rather than eating da poo poo:
http://sdgln.com/news/2010/12/.....-blackmail
Happy New Year everybody!
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4264/godb.gif
December 31st, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Ladeeda, faith healing for diabetes, you say?
http://www.koco.com/r/26315433/detail.html
barriejohn, we should thank Pastor Ssempa for demonstrating so handily why Uganda’s anti-gay bill is a corrupt farce.
December 31st, 2010 at 4:18 pm
dogon:
You sum up neatly what I was getting at. The quite extraordinary fact is that these disciples of the Prince of Peace with their turn the other cheek philosophy is that they want atheists, and believe atheists to be heading for, real and actual fires, a torture for all eternity. They, the fundamentalists, hold to the even more unlikely view that they deserve and will obtain an eternity of bliss.
Richard Dawkins, in his readable and one hundred per cent successful, destruction of religious belief refers (p. 254 in my copy) in The God Delusion to a “Southern Baptist initiative to count the number of Alabamans in hell. As reported in the New York Times and Newsweek the final total 1.86 million was estimated using a secret weighting formula…” What struck me was that much time, debate and effort must have been spent by by the pastors in deciding how many were headed for the pit of fire. I assume this grisly, and mad, excercise provided them with much satisfaction. Dawkins, with telling irony, heads that particular chapter “Love thy Neighbour.”77
December 31st, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Broga: Anyone residing in the county of Butler is advised to relocate to Shelby ASAP!
http://improbable.com/ig/1994/1994-math.html
December 31st, 2010 at 6:44 pm
barriejohn: You know something, barriejohn, I read/write some of these weird items about religion and don’t quite take it in that they are actually happening. A bit of my mind kind of detaches from the item as being too weird to be real. Then I read your link. What wonderful stuff. Amazing.
Thanks. Really appreciate being able to peruse that. Oh my, do these people really belong to the same species as the rest of us? This is top of the range, at the far horizons of religiodement: a condition which is beyond madness but covered with a patina of belief which stops its sufferers from being sectioned.
December 31st, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I see that I misread the chart there: those are the percentages of “unsaved” in each county. Still, life might be a lot more interesting in those “ungodly” counties anyway!
December 31st, 2010 at 8:03 pm
barriejohn: This should concentrate our minds. We are running out of time and by “we” I mean atheists. I read in the Freethinker that 21st May, 2011 will be the date of the long awaited Rapture. Now don’t laugh. This time it is the real deal, no messing, mark 21st May in your diaries and forget about the 22 May. Because, dear readers, there just isn’t going to be a 22 May.
Listen up, because this time they believers are certain. Tom Evans, Family Radio spokesman, says, “This is the day, this is really the day, this is not a joke.” The date has been “carefully calculated from specific biblical dates.”
Well, fair play to them, they have laid it on the line, no ifs and buts, no maybes. As the man says that this really is the day.
Better get converted while there is time. And you had better pick the right religion, the right god or you are for the chop.
December 31st, 2010 at 8:19 pm
“Armed police … stood helplessly by …?”
Excuse me, I don’t believe it. This smacks of complicity.
January 1st, 2011 at 8:32 am
The South African Human Rights Commission has failed to condemn witch-hunts in South Africa, despite having been repeatedly requested to do so by the South African Pagan Rights Alliance since 2007.
In South Africa, 34 people became victims of witchcraft accusation in 2010.
December 27 2010
Limpopo – Matome Albert Shai (aged 64) was accused of practising witchcraft and stoned to death.
December 2010
KwaZulu-Natal – Marrianhill – Coshele Mabhida (45), Angelina Mabhida (58), Sindi Mabhida (25), Njabulo Mabhida (9), Siphesihle Mabhida (7), Olwami Mabhida (6), and Andiswa Mabhida (9 months old) and relative Nelisiwe Khumalo (16), were burnt to death.
December 2010
Kwazulu-Natal – Pietermaritzburg – Tholakele Shoba (54), a trainee traditional healer, and her husband Shezi (60), were killed in Snathing near Edendale after they were accused by another traditional healer of having abducted a 7 year old boy to use for witchcraft.
October 2010
Eastern Cape – East London – A 20 year old man murdered his parents, aged 75 and 80, and wounded two others, a 38 year old sister and a 60 year old woman, identified as the family’s neighbor with a spear in Mooiplaas over accusations of witchcraft. Names of the victims were not released by the media.
September 2010
Eastern Cape – An unidentified 54 year old woman and her 3 year old granddaughter were wounded by gunmen seeking revenge for a killing they believe was caused by witchcraft. They shot the woman twice, in the shoulder and leg and the teenager once in the leg.
August 22 2010
Eastern Cape – Masilengenge Bambusiba (85), her grandsons Lwazi (17), Lwando (10), and Vela Nogemane (9), and granddaughter Ezile Nogemane (aged 5), were found dead at their home in Sigubudu village in Ngqeleni. Ten men attacked the family believing the woman was going to bewitch youths in the village.
March 2 2010
Western Cape – Yalezwa Phulwana (22), and her 2 year old daughter Liyema died in hospital from burns after their home was set alight. Yalezwa’s mother, Nonjengezinye Matwa, was also severely burned and had to be hospitalised. She was accused of being a witch by a traditional healer.
March 1 2010
Limpopo – An elderly Limpopo woman (not named) accused of witchcraft had her house burnt down in Magaung village at Sekororo, Maake, Limpopo.
February 2010
Kwazulu-Natal – A 68 year old man, Mbongeni Zungu, died after community members attacked him and burnt down his shack in Umlazi E section. They accused him of practising witchcraft, KwaZulu-Natal.
February 3 2010
Eastern Cape – A 65 year old woman, Nokitani Tshemesi and her three grandchildren, Phumeza Ntakani (aged 13), and Nonkoliseko Malolo and Akhona Malolo (both aged 10), were found stabbed to death in their home in Kwaaiman, Eastern Cape. They were accused of witchcraft.
January 13 2010
Kwazulu-Natal – An 81 year old woman, Badabukile Ndlovu, was stabbed 50 times and her throat slit by her neighbour who accused her of witchcraft, in KwaKwiliza near Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal.
January 4 2010
Eastern Cape – Mamakazi Mkhwanazi and her granddaughter Thobile Mbatha were burnt beyond recognition in Gunjaneni after being accused of practising witchcraft.
NONE of these victims were actually Witches!
January 1st, 2011 at 9:32 am
@DicePlayGod: My thoughts exactly. When there is a riot or, as in this case, lynch mob, I thought the police could shoot the perceived ringleader(s) and threaten the rest, at least until the victim is released. Or was this some cowboy film I saw?
January 1st, 2011 at 10:37 am
I think the mass media should publicise this sort of material far more often, I think there is a certain complacency in the west; whilst we correctly criticise the Catholic church for being complicit in the spread of AIDS due to its teachings on condoms, we should not forget that AIDS initially made its jump from monkey to human due to witch-doctors introducing fresh monkey blood onto human wounds in folk “cures”,rituals and aphrodisiacs.
Furthermore, it’s spread is aided by superstitious beliefs that claim one will be cured of AIDS if one has sex with an un-infected woman – leading in turn to rapes of younger and younger girls.
Some of these faith-beliefs are not too different from the mumbo-jumbo believed in by western new-age woodentops.
January 1st, 2011 at 11:13 am
Let me get this straight, a priest has a young family member take his own life, a tragedy. And then his sheeple kill mob style? Wft?! Most likely someone in the family had a grudge against him and pointed the finger of “whytch” or some such bullshit imho.
January 1st, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Great Satan: Something else our media and politicians don’t want to know about is Female Genital Mutilation. They soft pedal and say things like, “We must consult the community leaders.” And what happens? Nothing. I guess the same soft approach is applied to beating kids in the UK to an inch of their lives to drive out demons.
This relates to Richard Dawkins’ complaint that religion is treated with an undeserved respect.
Incidentally, I heard Rowan Williams, the Archbish, saying we should read the King James bible to get the big picture, understand the big society and understand our relationship to things beyond ourselves. I assume he doesn’t want us to read the bits where death is OK for people who work on the Sabbath, slavery is acceptable, you can hand your daughter over to be a slave in certain circumstances ……………. The usually bollocks from Rowan Williams and his ilk. He talks assuming that what he says will be accepted without question. Unfortuneatly, given the BBC religious propaganda and that in much of the media, it often is.
However, the Net is opening minds, giving voice to atheism, and allowing people to learn and communicate as never before.
January 1st, 2011 at 1:33 pm
@broga. That’s it! You’re right! If it wasn’t for the net, the filth that atheists spew against the wonders of religion would not be disseminated. I think the time to close down the internet is NOW. Someone point me in the direction of the Off Switch and I’ll be there.
Now to sane and sensible.
Happy new year to all Freethinkers.
For those of you who watch YouTube may I commend that you subscribe to TreVelocita who uploads the best of the anti-religious programmes from UK TV. Reading from the start was quite an education.
January 1st, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Broga: as I interpret the babble, the doGly get raptured naked and fly through the air to heaven. Even their clothes get left behind……I’m not sure how they breathe once they get beyond thirty thousand feet or so, and it’ll sure be cold without clothes but maybe they’ll be lit by inner doGly warmth – with doG all is possible after all. The Van Allen radiation may also be a problem as cold be stray rocks & stuff from the Oort cloud if they get that far!
Meanwhile the rest of us get to stay here and pick up all their abandoned stuff. Should be a glorious day for underwear fetishists! I’ve already got dibs on my neighbours’ BMW and credit cards. I’ll make a decision about their house after the brunch on sunday. I’m quite looking forward to May 22nd. with a late model beamer, credit cards and no more of these fundie buttheads around…..
Barrie: thanks for yet another great weblink!
January 1st, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Broga ; I agree with your comment on female genital mutilation, a while back even those islamo-apologists at the Guardian did an article on it with an editorial saying the law should be enforced rigourously on it, the soft approach having failed for the past 25 years…what has happened ? – nothing – news on fgm seems to be kicked into the long grass pretty much the day after it has appeared – curious that, I wonder why ?
I think that the vast majority of the British people are revolted by this religious barbarity and want our great and good politicians to do something. This is something that all the secular groups such as NSS,Humanists,Richard Dawkins Foundation etc could get their teeth into and make some noise and actually benefit humanity rather than sit around navel gazing the whole time.
January 1st, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I think that it is very easy to become depressed that this kind of thing still happens in 2011, going through the archive of this blog over the past year brings a litany of similar stories of ignorance and barbarism. We should, I think, take heart from the fact that only a few hundred years ago the entire planet was indulging in stuff like this. Little pockets of enlightenment have popped up from time to time throughout history but failed to take root. We can take some comfort in the fact that in our modern age roughly two thirds of the world have moved on from this kind of thing. Even though it sometimes feels as if we are taking two steps forward and one step back, little by little the forces of reason are winning.
I would also add that I am looking forward to the rapture on May 21st 2011. Mainly because it will be fun to point and laugh while the idiots try to explain why it didn’t happen. But ooh, what if these people are right? We can be rid of the Christians all in one go and I rather think that four dudes on horseback armed with flaming swords won’t prove much of a problem for a modern army.
January 1st, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Great Satan: The agony is, as usual, inflicted on little girls, babies in fact. The mother, indoctrinated in superstition often goes along with the torture and if she hesitates – and who wouldn’t with their child screaming in agony and hysterically threashing around – she will be put right by an even more heavily indoctrinated granny. We are talking here about girls having their clitorus sliced off by some barbarous religious male torturer and out state so concerned about child abuse looking the other way.
You might think the bishops, the heads of the various churches, the Home Secretary, or any politician with the guts to speak out, our very religious BBC, or so many others would protest. I’m afraid not. You see this is a religious and cultural issue and we must tread carefully.
January 1st, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Sailor 1031/Stonyground. I feel a post Rapture party coming on. One problem: when the Rapturests fly off into the wide blue yonder is the earth to be destroyed with the remaining population killed? Or are we to be left free of these nutters. Fine theological point I know and may require expert exegesis. Beyond me, I’m afraid.
Didn’t Dubya, or doesn’t Dubya, believe he is to be whisked into Heaven as in the Rapture?
January 1st, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Stonyground: If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to convince yourself that nothing has changed; that there will never be an end to the lies, the hypocrisy and the duplicity that religion uses to wreck lives and impede the emancipation of humanity from superstition; that there will always be fear, violence and intimidation lurking close by in the background somewhere, ready to silence anybody who steps out of line and has the temerity to question the rule of the religious mob. And as this article demonstrates, that kind of thing is, sadly, still out there.
However, compared to the way things were only a few decades ago, I honestly believe we are making huge strides. Everywhere you look, the incessant bleating of the religiot that their faith is being ‘marginalised’, ‘undermined’, ‘ignored’ or ‘devalued’ speaks volumes. Normal, everyday people are finally waking up and having the courage to speak up and say that it’s all a sham. Even my 76-year-old mother, who was brought up in a strict, traditional christian environment, told me over xmas that she hasn’t believed in god, heaven, hell, the bible or an after life for years. A real shock for me on a personal level – and a real source of hope for the future.
January 1st, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Broga: After the Rapture the world will swiftly descend into debauchery and chaos, as The Holy Spirit will have been withdrawn from the scene, along with all those devout Christians (the “salt of the earth”) and their luggage lifters. The Antichrist will appear and wage war on Israel, leading to Armageddon, when only the reappearance of Jesus with his heavenly armies will save the world from destruction. His victory over Satan will usher in The Millennium, after which comes the final judgment and the new heavens and new earth. This is the orthodox evangelical view, but you need to interpret the scriptures according to the doctrine, as you would be hard pressed to find it laid out like that anywhere in The Bible!
January 1st, 2011 at 9:15 pm
There are other interpretations of “Biblical prophecy”, as this writer points out, but it is always to one’s advantage to stick with orthodoxy!
http://www.allaboutgod.com/the-rapture.htm
January 1st, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I guess, if fundies want to kill me, I’m okay with that. I fulfilled my evolutionary obligation by siring a new generation. I feel sick about the nature of the planet they are inheriting, but, the reaper is coming for me, no matter what I do. Every day life hurts more. Kill away.
If I could choose who died next, it might well be a fundie conman in South Africa. But, I do get the point of the threadhead, and posts thereafter, that murder is the bi-product of superstition. Point well taken.
With a bit of humor, I can’t help but appreciate how much more civilized South Africa has become since apartheid was abolished. LOL. That is not a statement about race, it’s about education. Now that uneducated religious victims can rule themselves, South Africa is the new Northern Ireland. For my fatalist side, it’s entertaining stuff to watch unfold, wanting to scream, “I told you so, you ignorant assholes!!”, but, I’m not so jaded that I can’t feel sad for the families whose suffering I’m scared to imagine. Fuck religion.
NeoWolfe
January 2nd, 2011 at 12:34 am
Happy new year. My present: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....&NR=1
NeoWolfe
January 2nd, 2011 at 9:40 am
barriejohn: Thanks. Clear and helpful. I think 22 May is going to be a big day for me.
January 2nd, 2011 at 10:17 am
Broga: Do you remember the Chick tracts (mentiones here before)? He was big on “coming events”, producing graphic images of aeroplanes falling from the sky and trains crashing when their (“saved”) pilots and drivers were “raptured” to be with Jeebus! Horror of horrors though, there are now COUNTERFEIT Chick tracts being produced which do NOT follow “scriptural teaching” on this subject!! (Your soul is in danger – you have been warned.)
http://laryn.kragtbakker.com/d.....ture-1.jpg
(Click onto images for more examples of what is on offer)
http://www.chick.com/reading/t.....007_01.asp
http://www.balaams-ass.com/jou.....icktrk.htm
Sweet dreams and happy reading!
January 2nd, 2011 at 1:33 pm
re 21st May
Spent too much time listening to xtian radio in New York(i.e. any time at all). Heard a long mad lecture about exactly why it is the 21st. Very measured tone, with quotes from all over the bible. Lots of stuff about numbers in the bible and how they all mean something (17 is very significant apparently) and how this gives all the proofs… It was like being in a parallel universe.
On the upside xmas was v secular. Only saw one crib.
January 2nd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Lucy: According to an item that I was reading earlier today, the incomparable Margarita Pracatan is still appearing on New York TV. Did you see anything of the megastar, I wonder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hpkP2mb4SA
Those were the days!
January 2nd, 2011 at 4:25 pm
barriejohn: Some classy stuff there. I loved the comment, “Atheism, I rest my case.” And the other where the man says, “You remind me of my fourth wife.” A great read.
Lucy: As my Scots granny, long gone, and in less sceptical times might have said, “If its on the wireless or they have printed it, then it must be true.” I reckon we had better get up to speed as the confirmations of the Rapture are growing by the day.
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:47 pm
BJohn,
Peter Rollins said,
“Just as it was written by those prophets of old, the last days of the Earth overflowed with suffering and pain.”
As nasty as this planet is (unnecessarily), any student of history can take a look at the dark ages and realize that we don’t even understand what suffering is. Cholera, Bubonic plague, and incessant war.
Before the time of moses and his god invention, there was the Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, and one genetist (I tried but I can’t find it) said humanity was down to 25 reproducing females. If he’s right, we were that close to becoming part of the fossil record for some intelligent lizard to find in a few million years. That’s suffering and pain, yet the lord did not arrive on his chariot to make things right nor did he restore Edenic perfection. He didn’t rapture his loyal servants to heaven. He just sat in his lawn chair and watched circumstance unfold. I wouldn’t expect a policy change any time soon.
NeoWolfe
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:53 pm
NeoWolfe: It is often pointed out that EVEN BEFORE THE TIME OF JESUS commentators were saying: “We are living in terible times. Things have never been as bad as this!”. It seems to be a recurring theme.