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.