‘Muti’ thefts not only local problem
A woman from the East Rand contacted the Middelburg Observer after reading about victims who claimed that they have been drugged and robbed whilst doing shopping at the Middelburg Mall.
Saloma Veldman says that she could especially identify with what happened to Pearl Viljoen.
Like Mrs Viljoen, a woman she does not know started talking to her whilst she was in Woolworths in Lakeside Mall.
“She was telling me how expensive things have become. She then took a pair of expensive boots and said that she was going to buy them because she knows someone that works at Woolworths who can get her 50% discount,” says Mrs Veldman.
The woman invited her to also pick a pair of boots.
“I did not want boots, but she kept on insisting, all the while touching me on my arm and talking to me.”
The story ended with Mrs Veldman going to wait outside the shop with unknown women, and eventually giving them her handbag with her jewellery, which she had taken off inside.
When Mrs Veldman realised she had been robbed, she ran to her car because her car keys were inside her stolen handbag. She started receiving notifications on her phone, which she kept in her bra, of incorrect pins entered for her bank cards.
Also read: Drugs worth R12mil. confiscated
She cancelled all her cards but strangely enough, the thieves still managed to withdraw R2 000 cash from her Woolworths credit card as well as purchasing liquor to the value of R410 with it.
Mrs Veldman later also got notifications that her card was used to pay for almost R3 000 in toll fees. A further R9 000 was spent on her garage card.
After the incident, Mrs Veldman recalled feeling nauseous and having a strange red mark on her left arm near the elbow. One of the women involved in robbing her, by the name of Zandile, also had very rough hands.
Also read: Woman claims she was drugged
“She kept on touching me and I remember thinking that her hands felt like sandpaper.”
Upon opening a case at the Benoni Police Station, police officers told her of similar instances claiming that thieves use ‘muti’ to subdue their targets.
• The Middelburg Observer’s sister paper, Brakpan Herald, reported on a similar matter on 11 August this year. The victim once again recalled feeling ‘bewitched’ when she was robbed.
Also read: Devil’s breath again
• Mrs Viljoen came across articles about Devil’s Breath (scopolamine), used in Columbia to drug and then rob unsuspecting victims, when searching for the cause of symptoms she had after being robbed.
