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Timothy Makohliso Midlands Reporter—
IN a bizarre incident that has left villagers in Gokwe South shell-shocked, women in Chibarirwa and Demawatema last week woke up without their panties while their babies’ nappies miraculously disappeared. The strange incident was confirmed by Headman Madzivazvido, under whose jurisdiction the two villages fall.

Sources said the undergarments and nappies were found hanging from trees in a bushy area.
They said the bizarre incident is still the talk of the two remote villages.

“The areas are isolated and bushy. There are no homes nearby hence it is difficult to pinpoint someone as the culprit. Some women from both villages claim they just woke up in the morning to find that their undergarments had been stripped off while they were asleep,” said the source.

The source said other villagers said their panties and their children’s nappies vanished from the lines where they had left them to dry after washing.
All victims were later asked to identify their panties, the source said.

“The majority were able to positively identify their clothes and their children’s nappies though all were reluctant to take them as they suspected witchcraft,” said the source.

Headman Madzivazvido said when he received the report, he quickly sought spiritual intervention.
“I received a report about the strange incident last week and we are trying to seek answers from spirit mediums and local prophets in our area. They are telling us that the ancestral spirits are the ones behind the whole issue,” he said.

Headman Madzivazvido, however, said the bizarre incident could be an act of mischief by a naughty villager.
He said he does not subscribe to the notion that ancestral spirits could strip women of their panties.

The village head said when he reported the matter to the police, they told him it needed a cultural solution.
“The police told me they could not handle the matter as they felt no law had been broken. They advised me to deal with the matter culturally,” he said.
This is not the first time that women in Gokwe have lost their panties under mysterious circumstances.

In July 2012, a 62-year-old Gokwe man came out in the open and claimed ownership of a goblin which had been terrorising women in his village by taking off their panties at night while they were asleep.

The man, Lumeck Ncube of Village Charisekera, under Chief Njelele, made the startling revelations at a cleansing ceremony in the village.
The cleansing ceremony, conducted by an inyanga from Hwange District in Matabeleland North and a prophet from an apostolic sect, was attended by Chief Njelele, hundreds of villagers and journalists from different media organisations.

Chief Njelele had invited the traditional healer, commonly known as a tsikamutanda from Hwange District, and the prophet in a bid to bring “peace” to his area after 26 women woke up and found themselves without panties.

It also emerged during the cleansing ceremony that the mysterious goblin had been tormenting women in the villages since 2004.
In another suspected act of witchcraft, a Gokwe man was found in possession of 13 women’s panties and a black mamba during a cleansing ceremony after 13 women from Mubvumbi Village under Chief Njelele in Gokwe woke up without their undergarments in July this year.

Chief Njelele confirmed the incident, saying the culprit, Saviors Nyenyezwa, of the same village, would soon be arraigned before the traditional court for being found in possession of a snake, the panties and other things associated with witchcraft.