Couple lose R30 000 to Sangoma....

Nosive Titsolo of Khayelitsha, who is unemployed, decided to consult a sangoma after her house was burgled and her purse disappeared. (from IOL)

The sangoma promised to perform three rituals to end her run of bad luck. One of these involved buying a bag for R12 000 into which a R1-million gift from the ancestors would appear on a certain day.

Titsolo paid R1 000 for a goat for the cleansing ceremony. She also borrowed R12 000 from a relative for the the bag for the ancestors' gift.

In the third ritual, she borrowed R15 000 from a bank to buy cows which would "protect and cleanse" her house.

She was also charged a consultation fee, bringing the amount she said she paid to the sangoma to R30 000. She was told to open a bank account and deposit the money in it.

But the day she was due to receive the R1-million "gift from the ancestors" came and went.

Titsolo went back to the sangoma, who was based in Harare, to find out what had gone wrong, only to be told by his assistants that he had gone to the "mountain in Kenya".

"My husband and I believed in him and trusted him, but we now realise that he brainwashed us," said Titsolo.

Titsolo's husband has a job.

She says they had expected some good luck, but had just had more bad luck.

Titsolo said she had tried to lay a charge with the Khayelitsha police but they refused to open a docket if people were going to be so stupid?