LEHAWU – A 78-year-old woman has been robbed of all her savings amounting to R17 000.

According to the frantic pensioner, Ms Khulumile Magagula, a man wearing a ZCC uniform and badge visited her at home.

The man allegedly started prophesying the minute he stepped into the yard.

“He told me about all my problems and spoke about the ailments that I have been troubled with, that gave me hope that he was going to help me,” said Magagula.

According to the man, the remedy to her sickness would be to steam her under a blanket, the way the Zionists do it.

“The ‘prophet’ prepared the mixture and covered me with a blanket.

He instructed me to calmly sit under the blanket until he told me to open it up,” said the sobbing pensioner.

She realised she had stayed under the blanket too long when she started to feel dizzy, she then called out for him but there was no response.

“I then uncovered myself only to find that the man was nowhere to be found.

My bed had been ransacked and I discovered that the money I kept under the mattress was gone.

All the money that I had been saving from my monthly social grant and through selling fruit and vegetables was gone,” cried Magagula.

After making the discovery, everything went blank and with no idea what happened thereafter. She was woken up by cold water on her face.

Her 58-year-old son told Mpumalanga News he got suspicious when he could not see his mother sitting on her usual spot for a long time.

“I then decided to check inside her hut only to find that she was unconscious. I then got water and sprinkled over her face and she woke up,” he added.

Magagula said that she did not report the matter because according to her, the police would only pressurise her, seeking information that she does not have.

“All I remember about the man is that he had a scar on the right hand and that he was wearing a ZCC uniform,” she said.

According to the woman who alerted this publication about the incident, this was not the first time such a thing happened.

“We’ve heard about similar cases in the community before and it’s difficult for victims to open cases because they don’t have all the information the police require.

I suspect the culprits mess with the victims’ minds so that they do not remember anything,” she said.

A ZCC pastor whom Mpumalanga News spoke to said that it was annoying that criminals were painting a bad picture about the church for their selfish gain.

“There are true prophets out there who have been ordained to heal people and they do not visit anyone at their homes.

People come to us for prayers and we only visit them per arrangement,” said Past Solomon Zulu.