A mother has been accused of selling her two-year-old daughter to a ‘witch doctor’ after her child’s corpse was found buried in a shallow grave.
Kuneuwe Shalaba appeared alongside ‘shaman’ Sebokoana Khounyana in court yesterday, charged with the brutal murder of her toddler, who she allegedly sold for £3,100.
Many fear the pair killed the child for her body parts in what could be the second witch doctor case to rock South Africa in recent days.
It comes after evil Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, 35, was jailed for life last week for selling her daughter, Joshlin, for just £800.
The six-year-old schoolgirl vanished outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town, in February last year and was never seen again.
However, in this latest case, a body was recovered, and an alleged accomplice to the killing arrested.
Details emerging from the latest case have sparked fears that up to a third of the over 1000 children murdered each year in South Africa may be being targeted for body parts.
A mother appeared in court yesterday charged along with a ‘witch doctor’ of the brutal murder of her two-year-old daughter who she sold for £1,350 and was later found buried in a shallow grave. Pictured: Murdered daughter Kutlwano Shalaba with mother Kuneuwe Shalaba
A major search effort was launched after Kuneuwe Shalaba, 33, reported her child – who she at first claimed was a boy but later admitted was a girl – missing. Shalaba she said ‘he’ was snatched from her by 3 kidnappers who sped off in a VW Golf near Johannesburg. Pictured: Kutlwano Shalaba
Police had been searching for the missing child for 6 months before investigators discovered that just two hours before they received the report a large amount of money was paid into Shalaba’s bank. Pictured: Mother-of-five Kuneuwe Shalaba
NPA spokeswoman Miss Mahanjana confirmed that the sangoma named as Sebokoana Khounyana, 50, had also been charged with premeditated murder and human trafficking along with the girl’s mother. Pictured: Kuneuwe Shalaba, 33, and ‘sangoma’ Sebokoana Khounyana, 50
A major search effort was launched after Kuneuwe Shalaba, 33, reported her child missing.
At first Shalaba claimed the child, Kutlwano, was a boy but later admitted she was a girl.
She said the toddler was snatched from her by three kidnappers who sped off in a VW Golf near Johannesburg.
Police had been searching for the child for 6 months before investigators discovered that just two hours before they received the report a large amount of money was paid into Shalaba’s bank.
Mother-of-five Shalaba – who was struggling to make ends meet and feed her kids – received a year’s money from a mystery man which she could not explain when detectives confronted her.
Magistrates heard that she then not only confessed that she made up the kidnap story but had in fact led the police to believe they were trying to find her ‘son’ when the missing toddler was in fact a girl.
Shalaba of Boipatong township, 55 miles south of Johannesburg, had her phone calls analysed which led police to a sangoma or ‘witch doctor’ working out of a nearby taxi rank.
National Police Authority spokesman Lumka Mahanjana said in a statement that when arrested the sangoma confessed his part in the disappearance of the girl and led officers to an abandoned mine.
After digging with shovels police discovered a skeleton which is currently undergoing a post-mortem to determine the exact cause of death and if any of her body parts had been harvested.
So called muti killings – the taking of body parts from murdered children by a small number of sangoma’s to make ‘black magic’ potions for the rich – claim 50 to 300 victims every year in South Africa.
Schoolgirl Joshlin (pictured), 6, was sold by her mother for just £800
Sangoma is a Zulu term that is colloquially used to describe all types of Southern African traditional healers.
Shalaba – who had been charged with human trafficking, conspiracy to commit robbery and making a false statement to police – was charged with premeditated murder when the body was discovered.
NPA spokeswoman Miss Mahanjana confirmed that the sangoma named as Sebokoana Khounyana, 50, had also been charged with premeditated murder and human trafficking along with the girl’s mother.
Yesterday’s media statement on Facebook said that on November 10 last year the mother took the toddler to see the sangoma and ‘requested that he kill her’ because she was not happy with the child’s gender.
It continued: ‘She was tired of hiding the gender from her family that the child was a girl. The mother then allegedly fed the baby poison and after that the baby died and the two buried her in a shallow grave.
‘After investigations by the police the sangoma was arrested on 29 May, 2025, and he subsequently made a confession and pointed out to the police the place where the body of the child had been buried.
‘In court today the matter was postponed to 05 June 2025 for legal representation to be found for the sangoma. The state intends to oppose his release on bail and previously denied the mother’s release on bail’.
Joshlin vanished outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town, in February last year and has not been seen since
In February pleading for bail Shalaba said she was 9 months pregnant with twins – which she has since given birth to behind bars – and would not abscond but a magistrate ordered her to remain in jail.
The alleged child killer is separated from her husband and is known as a loan shark to locals who trades in buying and selling clothes and has two other children aged 6 and 9 being cared for by relatives.
The prosecution believes Kutlwano – who was dressed as a boy and introduced to family and friends as a boy – was murdered on November 10 and that the mother reported her kidnapped on November 13.
She was arrested on November 19 at home in Boipatong 40 miles south of Johannesburg and her daughter’s body was found on May 29 buried in a shallow grave in the nearby town of Randfontein.
Both the mother and the sangoma were brought to Vanderbijlpark Magistrates Court south of Johannesburg where locals who knew them both packed the court to watch the proceedings.
Magistrate Michael Tlale was taken by surprise when the sangoma was brought before him for the first time and insisted he did not need a lawyer as he said he was guilty of the charges he was accused of.
Mr Tlale said he would have to ignore his plea until proceedings reached a stage when he could take it.
The pair had the charges of human trafficking and premeditated murder formally put to them.
Mother Shalaba is also accused of conspiracy to commit robbery and making a false statement to the police.
Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith (pictured), 35, was said to have been sought out by a traditional healer who wanted her daughter Joshlin for her ‘light eyes and skin’ who ‘vanished’ from her township and never seen again
A South African Police source said: ‘The money trail is being followed from the accused mother’s bank account to discover who paid her such a substantial amount of money and why they did.
‘For a person in the accused’s position that is an awful lot of money and it is only fair to reason that whoever was paying that amount would have expected something in return’, he said.
NPA spokesman Miss Mahanjana confirmed a post-mortem was underway to ascertain ‘exactly what was done to the child’ before death and whether any body parts were harvested from it.
The shocking sale of little Kutlwano appears to be a chilling copycat case of that of an evil mother who was jailed for life last week for selling her six-year-old daughter for just £800 allegedly into slavery.
Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, 35, was said to have been sought out by a traditional healer who wanted her daughter Joshlin for her ‘light eyes and skin’ who ‘vanished’ from her township and never seen again.
Last Thursday the mother-of-three was sentenced to life behind bars by Judge Nathan Erasmus for human trafficking by selling her daughter Joshlin and for kidnapping her given an additional 10 years.
Last Thursday the mother-of-three was sentenced to life behind bars by Judge Nathan Erasmus for human trafficking by selling her daughter Joshlin and for kidnapping her given an additional 10 years
Her boyfriend Jacquen Apollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were also given life sentences for their part in the shocking kidnap and sale of tragic Joshlin at Saldanha Bay 80 miles north of Cape Town.
The fun loving schoolgirl was last seen outside her home last February and the 8 week trial at the community centre in Saldanha Bay heard she was almost certainly sold into ‘expoloitation and slavery’.
The South African Police insisted that the search for her will continue ‘night and day’ until she is found and have begged her mother to reveal what happened to Joshlin but she refused to co-operate.
The court heard drug user Kelly had told friends and a local pastor she had sold Joshlin for £835 in February last year to a sangoma and was later charged by police over her disappearance.
The case rocked South Africa and highlighted the hundreds of cases throughout Africa of ‘healers’ – known as sangomas or ‘witch doctors’ – who take children to use body parts to make ‘miracle potions’.
So far although this fate is strongly feared it has not yet been proven in either the Joshlin or Kutlawano cases.
Pyschologists who have studied the sale of children to sangomas who are mutilated for ‘black magic’ say the potions sell for far more if the body parts are removed while the terrified child is still alive.
The sangomas claim their potions – which are sold according to which body parts are used to make them – can cure fatal diseases, bring luck in love, bring instant wealth and even kill buyers enemies.
Huge superstition still holds sway over large parts of the African population who highly respect and fear the sangomas and pay them large amounts of money for their so called ‘black magic’ potions.
Both accused killers Shalaba and Khounyana will appear before the same magistrate on June 5.
