Muti thieves prey on Swazi accident victims

MBABANE – The gruesome robbery of a man's leg last week alerted road users in Swaziland to the possibility that if they are involved in a fatal accident on the kingdom’s highways their body parts may be stolen. “Search crews have not been able to locate the missing leg of 43-year-old Vusi Thani. The limb was severed from his body when he was struck and killed by a government vehicle last Sunday night at 19:10 at Croydon on the Luve-Mliba M5 road,” a police spokesman told FTW. Thani was jaywalking on the road when he was hit by a Ministry of Health vehicle that witnesses say was speeding. When police arrived they could not locate his right leg, and took his remains to a clinic where he was pronounced dead. Croydon residents participated in a search for the missing limb, but were unsuccessful. The police official would not speculate on what had happened to the severed limb, but most Swazis interviewed by FTW had no doubt that it was taken for use in muti, a traditional potion made from body parts. Although they thought it fair that motorists be made aware of the danger, Croydon residents felt badly that the looting of the accident victim’s leg would lessen the area’s appeal as a tourist destination.