Teenage Boy who was Practicing to Become a Wicthdoctor Strangles Grandmother to Death with Shoelace

A 19-year-old witch-doctor-in- training allegedly strangled his grandmother with a shoelace after accusing her of witchcraft.

The suspect, from Limpopo, South Africa allegedly killed his 74-year-old grandmother in her bedroom on Friday.

He apparently woke up his elder sister afterwards and confessed to killing his granny because “she was a witch”.

Police spokesperson Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said the teenager was arrested and will be appearing in the Tiyani district court today for the murder.

According to the pensioner’s granddaughter, whom local media did not name before her younger brother appears in court, the suspect came back home at night from a neighbouring village where he was receiving training to become a witch-doctor.

“I did not notice that he came back that night because he has been in training for the past six months. I only heard his voice calling my name and when I peeped through the window I saw him with a white shoelace in his hand.”

The 45-year-old granddaughter said the suspect then told her to go and see what he had done to the grandmother.

“He said he killed her with a lace because she has been bewitching him. He further threatened to kill me if I tell anyone about it,” she said.

The woman said she jumped off her bed to check on her grandmother who had been sleeping alone in her two-room house.

“I was shocked to find her lifeless body. He entered through an unlocked door and found her sleeping, and strangled her.

“Judging from her untidy bed, one could see she tried to fight but he overpowered her.”

She said the family wanted the law to take its course.

“We have got no elderly person left in our family because the last one was killed by one of our own. We want the law to take its course and send him to jail,” she said.

Mojapelo said preliminary investigation indicated that the deceased might have been strangled.