LIVINGSTONE Magistrate Edsen Shanduba has called for the amendment of the Witchcraft Act so that perpetrators of such acts can be prosecuted in the courts of law.
Mr Shanduba said witchcraft was real in Zambia and the country could not ignore such matters.
He was speaking in Livingstone on Friday last week in his contribution to a plenary session of the stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting during the launch of the Industrial Relations Court Registry in Southern Province.
Mr Shanduba said the judiciary was there to ensure that justice was enhanced and hence there was need for the authorities to look into the Witchcraft Act.
“The people in authority should consider amending the Witchcraft Act.We have quite big problems when where matters of witchcraft are brought before the court.
“According to the witchcraft definition, it just talks bones and one wonders if these are bones of an Impala or a donkey so that definition has given us a slight problem,” Mr Shanduba said.
He noted that witchcraft issues had been in the media of lately and had become a matter of public interest.
A Senanga resident Mufalali Mufalali ‘died’ in November last year and he was ‘buried’ but he recently resurfaced at his home claiming that he came from within Western Province where he was working for another person.
This case of alleged ‘resurrection’ has attracted public interest especially on the need to curb witchcraft in the country.
“Witchcraft is real and we cannot ignore it. Even the bible talks about witchcraft. It is my appeal that witchcraft Act should be amended,” Mr Shanduba said.
The Industrial Relations Court, which is now a Division of the High Court under the Amended Constitution of Zambia, was launched in Livingstone to handle industrial and other labour related cases in Southern Province.
This means that the people in Southern Province will no longer be required to go to Lusaka for industrial and labour related matter.
The first circuit will commence in Livingstone on April 4, 2016 and the last one would commence on November 7, 2016 while each circuit session will be for a period of at least two weeks.
Livingstone High Court Judge-in-Charge Ernest Mukulwamutiyo said the advantage of the new Court was that cases commenced in the Industrial Relations Division would be completed within a year at the most and judgement delivered within 60 days from the completion of trial.
Witchcraft is real?? Ma rubbish.
Stop believing in fairy tales, & living in the Dark ages.
What would be the level of evidence admissible in court? This is merely one’s word against another. The so called witchdoctors are a group of lairs if you still have faith in them I suggest you talk to Mpombo’s son. Anyone who tells you they have a solution to any disease or problem is a liar.
How many people do you know whose lives have been a messed up through promiscuity and were told by witchdoctors that their mother bewitched them after they fell sick? Or Rotarians and Lions accused of being Satanists? Whilst it is true that some people do practice witchcraft its powers are far less than perceived.
Just when are we going to move forward as a people? Instead of finding solutions to congested prisons; solutions to corruption; solutions to poverty why we are still preoccupied…
If GOD exists then there must be a counter-GOD & I think witchcraft (like all other ‘evil’) exist in this realm. So at the end of the day its what you ‘choose’ to believe in.
I also think our diversity is what makes this life exciting. Imagine we all thought alike. It would be so boring.
As for legitimization of Mr Shanduba’s ideas, well, that should come down to democracy.
Remove this quack from her position. She is very detrimental to the development of Zambia.
If the Holy Spirit is real, if follows that the Evil Spirit is real, too! For, one cannot exist without the other. What is the essense of believing in God if it not for protection against the Devil: witchcraft, sorcery, et cetera? If one does not believe there are Satanists in our midist, then their belief in God is fake and pretentious!
If you call witchcraft Ma rubbish, it means you are a witch and you want to confuse the people that there is no witchcraft so that you continue messing up their lives with impunity.
The bible records that we are not ignorant of the devices of the enemy and witchcraft is one of them. We know that you operate in secrete places but believe me at the mention of the name Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
THERE IS TRULEY NO WITCHCRAFT ITS OLD FOLKLORE THEY ARE LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN ITS FUNNY TO READ THEIR CLAIMS
It’s paranoia but there are people who believe in flying around on broomsticks. We should not ignore it as it is resurfacing even here in the West, modern witches are practicing openly since we can’t burn them at the stake anymore!
We need to understand that these people are major poisoners in Zambia. Hock pocus, bubble and rumble spiritual stuff ….or whatever….is sil.ly, but it is their Mind that we should worry about as a murderer who thinks he can because the ‘spirits’ say so is a danger! Shameful stuff.
What’s the connection to people in the South! Is giving them their own courts a suggestion they are?! Also it looks as though we are having devolution of the Southern Province by stealth! They are having their own courts too!
It’s not witchcraft its just pretend, ignorance and self deception.? Witches, vampires, werewolves etc don’t exist there’s no proof of their existence can’t believe some people believe these stuff?…. people should rather start using their common sense and realise that its all about “money making” before more innocent elders are falsely accused and condemed to death by instant justice by VERY VERY ignorant brainwasned people!
if you deny these happenings,why is it that i found myself lying on the doorsteps of my crib the following morning after going to bed earlier around 19 pm the previous day,only to find myself stuck naked?
think before commenting you ßtunts!
It’s real imwe. Why is it that some Hotels don’t have room 13.Some Passenger planes don have seat 13.
kaddaffi, you were either drunk or sleep walking kikikikiki lol you v made my day hahahahaha
Not real in Zambia but world wide ,if Satan is real and all is works are real.
Take or leave it real I was once a victum
Kadddaffi#5 As much as you and others would like to believe in witchcraft, there is no evidence proven about your beliefs, its all about what you heard or what you say you experienced. We do not know about your experience, coz you were alone. Have you heard about certain disorders like sleep walking, talking in sleep or smiling or laughing. Are those witchcraft
Both christians n none christians believe its real.its real but guilty till found innocent its hard as lacks real evidence.
The little I know of courts is that the facts must be there and proved. Now how does one prove what is not seen? Surley after all these years of independence and the missionaries before that, we, the Zambian people must go back to medieval days? No let move forward please.
Witchcraft is a myth.
If it was real there would be no CR or Mazhandu or Juldan bus services in Zambia.
There would be Electricity and Shoprites in every village of South Province – everyone would be winning LOTTO.
See how far the country has degenerated. Mr Shanduba, get a bit of science in yourself and stop watching Nigerian movies, you are a magistrate and should not mislead people especially the young. I pity Alzheimer patients that try to seek redress in your court after being victimized by the superstitious and ignorant communities. As for the Mufalali story, it is either a concoction or the brother needs psychiatric help.
So many comments yet nealy all of them lacking in substance. In the age of science and ict one would expect scientific responses to rule and provide some basic understanding.Where ‘re the scientists to tell us the empirical efficasy of this age old practice? If evn as christians we believe in forces of darkness,evil which we use to instl fear in order to woo congregants then w’craft is real because it draws from the same pool. What is magic?ghosts?And why witch doctors overtly doing their rounds?
It had to take a magistrate to say it. Muzasila!
The difference between us and the developed world is that while they have wholly accepted and worked so hard to accentuate their cultural norms with formidable integration into matters of religion, spirituality and science we onthe other hand have chosen to go for a raw cutting out of it.We’re here downgrading a common feature of our tradition and woefully advancing imperialistic and colonialist imagery against it while they celebrate halloween and commercialise wacko.Who are we?
…a white man did not understand about the moon…he made a a rocket to take him there and back….Zambian do not understand about whitchcraft…do we need a white man to come and reveal to us what whitchcraft is all about….University of Zambia has a school of whatever to do with heritage chakuti chakuti…..why cant we do a forensic study on whitchcraft…involve the suspects so called whitch doctors or finders…give the suspects a video camera to film their ‘missions’…..
It is fo.o.li.sh to deny the existence of witchcraft. Ask our chiefs and they’ll tell you that witchcraft is real. Those who deny the existence of witchcraft are either witches themselves or are children of witches or have themselves been to a witch doctor.
And so is Dementia which in most cases manifests as witch craft, its so disappointing that diseases that affects the elderly like Dementia have been ignored by most Zambians including those in the medical field. A severely demented elderly can become disoriented at night and forget to put on their clothes and find their way outside. This would be seen as a different story to many Zambians and such a person would be beaten to death. Lets educate our community about these illnesses and protect the aging community.
Ask yourselves WHY you declared your country as a christian nation. Christianity assumes there is spiritual evil. You even allow broadcasts on your national radio by self-proclaimed pastors – faith healers that claim to cast out demons and the lines are jammed with callers. Now tell me, as a nation, do we really have any vision of where we are going?
yes it’s real when they are considered sinners..don’t deny it
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Witchcraft is Satan’s realm, and he excels in counterfeiting what God does. 1 Samuel 15:23
If you deny it is up to you. All those who have rebelled are not pagans. They know God but deny him. Pagans dont know God. So we have a lot of witches in this world.
In the medieval age, Europe also believed in witchcraft. As they developed and they learnt that the fruits of genuine hard work, good governance, education and self actualization among others are freedom from imaginary fear, the quest to find scientifically sound answers to questions, freedom to take qualitative risks and freedom to refuse mediocrity. The thought about witchcraft died naturally.
Now here the whole magistrate is stuck in some imaginary trans.
witchcraft doesn’t exist… superstitious people do.