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Gogo Maweni's assault case ignites debate on witchcraft's legal status in South Africa

Gogo Maweni's assault case ignites debate on witchcraft's legal status in South Africa
Michelle Banda
By Michelle Banda
12 Feb 2025
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Gogo Maweni has regularly shared with her followers that she is not averse to using her remedies, traditional knowledge and potions to get even or bewitch those who betray or harm her and her family.

The current case of traditional healer and reality TV star Makgosto Lee-Anne Makopo Mofokeng-Mgube, popularly known as “Gogo Maweni”, accused of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm has brought up the contentious debate of witchcraft and its legal ramifications. Mgube, who was arrested on 27 January 2025, made a brief appearance at the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto on 11 February. Her case was postponed for trial on 12 March.

Figures like Mgube have publicly and boastfully admitted bewitching actor Sthembiso “SK” Khoza and former Mamelodi Sundowns defender Siyabonga Zulu. The healer gained fame during her participation in Mzansi Magic’s reality TV series Izangoma Zodumo and later branched into her TV series, Thokoza Gogo on Moja Love.

She has regularly shared with her followers how she was not averse to using her remedies, traditional knowledge and potions to get even or bewitch those who betray and harm her and her family. Mgube is also a co-host of Which Craft Podcast, a platform she shares with her husband Sabelo Mgube which aired a year ago and focuses on just educating or sharing insights into different kinds of witchcraft. However, Mgube is not the only person to have gone on social media platforms admitting to witchcraft or endorsing it. Many other healers, including the popular Tumi “Gogo Skhotheni” Motsoeneng Shange and Bhongolethu “Dr Khehlelezi” Mzozo, have also done so.

These admissions have received mixed reactions (backlash and support). With arguments centered around traditional healing as sacred and meant for alternative healing rather than harm, the question is whether such statements should carry legal consequences.

In South Africa, where customary law coexists with common law, this online trend raises serious legal and ethical questions. The Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957 criminalises witchcraft, including professing supernatural powers to cause harm. Yet, despite such claims becoming increasingly public, authorities rarely act, leaving a legal and cultural grey area that challenges both law enforcement and traditional healers themselves.

Read more: Witchcraft: Lawmakers are in a ‘Catch-22’ situation

The legal grey area


Traditional healing in virtually all its forms has been illegal for more than a century in South Africa. Under the provisions of the Witchcraft Suppression Act (first introduced in 1895, last amended in 1970), all forms of divination are outlawed. This has resulted in little to no prosecution as it remains a topic that cannot be proven due to its supernatural nature, and can only be proven subject to other factors in the case of a traceable illness, misfortune or death to another person, or property damage. 

The case of the State versus Landile Tyolo of March 2024 heard in the Eastern Cape Division of High Court in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) highlights the complexities of witchcraft-related legalities and emphasises the need for legislative transformation. Tyolo was convicted and sentenced to a life sentence for naming his aunt whom he believed to have bewitched his brother, whom he later murdered for a similar reason.

Bernice de Beer, an attorney and founder of  BDB Attorneys, a law firm based in Vereeniging, located south of Johannesburg in Gauteng province, told Daily Maverick that there should be legal consequences for such statements such as claiming to bewitch or harm anyone as it was illegal to practise witchcraft in South Africa. However, De Beer said: “It is difficult to prosecute anyone who merely alleged on social media that they bewitched or harmed another person since each element of a crime needs to be proved. Unless there is a clear nexus between the allegations and injury, other than a proper confession, such a person cannot be prosecuted.” 

De Beer added that while the Witchcraft Suppression Act protected people from witchcraft, so did the Criminal Procedure Act in these circumstances. Referencing the Tyolo case, she said: “Injury to a victim remains a crime, regardless of the accused’s beliefs, but also where tradition in a recognised religion, such as Hinduism, is in dispute, discrimination is not allowed. This makes it difficult to then say that witchcraft should be allowed as it is used in some African belief traditions. I think that what is important to consider is the fact that witchcraft is considered a crime as it involves injury to another person, and therefore our law prohibits it.”

How other countries handle witchcraft-related cases


Unlike in South Africa, Kenya’s Witchcraft Act criminalises both the practise and accusation of witchcraft, imposing penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for those claiming supernatural powers to harm others. It also punishes the possession of charms and solicitation of witchcraft services. Similar and stricter punishments for witchcraft exist in Zambia, and these have been exemplified with the recent apprehension of two men accused of plotting to harm the country’s president, Hakainde Hichilema, using witchcraft, as reported in WION.

Unlike South Africa, Kenya and Zambia, where witchcraft is criminalised, the United States protects it under freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the Equal Protection Clause. Practising witchcraft, including Wicca and other spiritual traditions, is legal. In Mexico, witchcraft (brujería) is deeply embedded in cultural and spiritual traditions across all social classes. Brujería de Rancho refers to rural witchcraft practices, often blending indigenous rituals with Catholic influences. These two states recognise witchcraft as a legitimate belief system rather than a criminal offense.

Traditional healing perspective: a call for regulation


Organisations such as the South African Pagan Rights Alliance,  Traditional Healers Organisation, and the South African Pagan Council have long called for a review of the  Witchcraft Suppression Act. In its submission to the South African Law Reform Commission in 2022, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance proposed the repeal of the Witchcraft Suppression Act and that there should be no legislation regulating witchcraft, and that misuse of witchcraft should be dealt with in terms of common law. 

The South African Pagan Council acknowledged the pervasive nature of witchcraft among African communities and the destruction it had caused within communities. It argued that perceptions about witchcraft had been changing since pre-colonial times, and continued to change. The council drew attention to the fact that in post-apartheid South Africa, any conduct that was prohibited in the act had to be viewed through the lens of the Constitution, which requires that all religions be treated equally. The council pointed out that magic and the use of charms, which was prohibited in sections 1(d) and (f) of the Witchcraft Suppression Act, was practised by various other religions, including but not limited to Hinduism, and stated that limiting or criminalising such practices could amount to discrimination or be viewed as prejudicial.  

Traditional Healers Organisation spokesperson Abraham Mnguni told Daily Maverick: “It is a known fact that charlatans and people pose as traditional healers, and they are doing an enormous damage to the already ailing dignity of Traditional Health Practice, which is facing cultural diminishment. Our stance has been clear that our traditional healers need to be well trained and capacitated to be able to deal with the lives of our people, and we wish to send a strong message to these chancers to desist from posing as traditional healers as they are gambling with the lives of innocent people and the livelihoods of more than 200,000 traditional health practitioners.”

According to Mnguni, there was a huge difference between healing and witchcraft, with which traditional healing had been falsely linked.

“Healing speaks to giving a person healing for the body, mind, and soul, whereas witchcraft is inflicting pain. But this confusion is perpetuated by a standing apartheid law called the Witchcraft Suppression Act which failed to provide the proper definitions as to whom and what is deemed witchcraft-related acts. We have called for the amendment of the act as it continues to pose a threat to the future of traditional healing in our country.”

He said proper definitions of what was witchcraft could go a long way in managing witchcraft-related cases and creating regulations for those who identified as witches. He added that if the act was not reformed it would create further confusion and more witches would continue using traditional healing as a way to mask their deeds. DM

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