EASTERN FREE STATE
TEL: 058 3035411
WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2013
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‘Free my mother’
Animals needed to pay sangoma } Tladi Moloi
IN NEED: Jwalane Mthembu (21) from Ext. 3 in Bohlokong, Bethlehem, needs your help. Photo: Tladi Moloi
“PLEASE help my mother.” This is the humble plea of the tearful Jwalane Mthembu (21) from Ext. 3 in Bohlokong, Bethlehem. Mthembu visited the Express Eastern Free State (EFS) office first thing on Monday morning to ask the community for help. She said her mother needed to be released from traditional healing training to become a sangoma, and a cow, sheep and goat are needed for this to happen. “I have spoken to relatives, but they are not willing to help. I do not even want to talk about my uncle who provoked me over the phone. I have decided to come to Express EFS to ask the community to help,” she said. The unemployed Mthembu, who is now living with her grandmother, said the old woman was willing to help, but some of her children had discouraged her from doing this. “I wish I could help my mother, because we are now struggling. She left us with three kids from my uncle and my sister who have both passed away,” she said. Mthembu said her mother went for training in February after she had been sick for a long time. A fam-
“I wish I could help m y m o t h e r, b e cause we are now struggling. She left us with three kids from my uncle and my sister who have both passed away.” ily friend had advised them to go to a traditional healer in Ficksburg. “I went there with my mother and she was healed. The traditional healer told her that her ancestors wanted her to be a traditional healer herself,” she said. She said she was now afraid to go to where her mother was training to tell her of the latest developments, as her mother had fainted the last time she had told her of the family’s reaction to the matter. “I can’t go there unless I have those animals. I am afraid that this time she might faint and die.” Anyone who is willing to help can call Express EFS’s office on 058-3035411 or call Mthembu on 083-7102866.