36/1/4/1/201100044
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 678
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 7 MARCH 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 4- 2011)
Date reply submitted: 29 March 2011
678. Mr M M Swathe (DA) to ask the Minister of Police:
(a) How many murder cases have been investigated in rural areas in each
province where the victim was killed for alleged involvement in witchcraft
in (i) 2009, (ii) 2010 and (iii) during the period 1 January 2011 up to the
latest specified date for which information is available, (b) how many
cases involved (i) an individual and (ii) a mob/crowd as suspects and (c)
for each case where a mob was the suspect, what was the eventual outcome of
the case?
NW725E
REPLY:
Question 678, with all its sections and subsections, can only be answered
if all murder cases for 2009 up to March 2010 (the latest statistics
released by the Minister of Police) are systematically scrutinized to
determine those that are witchcraft related. The identified dockets will
then have to be analysed for the questions to be answered. The systematic
identification of âwitchcraft-related docketsâ will be extremely time-
consuming and would require the redeployment of police personnel to verify
every case docket relevant to the period in question. The redeployment of
personnel to perform this task would not only place an extra burden on
limited human and financial resources, but would rather be to the detriment
of other essential duties or the rendering of services to the community.
Reply to question 678 approved by the Minister