No healing for Marikana sangoma’s shattered family

The family of the man accused of being the infamous Marikana sangoma who, according to reports, smeared muti on protesting mineworkers to make them invincible and “invisible”, is desperate to clear his name.

Alton “Ndzabe” Joja was killed before he had a chance to appear before judge Ian Farlam’s Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the massacre of 34 striking Lonmin mineworkers.

It has been alleged that Joja’s muti was the reason mineworkers “charged” at police, prompting the mass shootings, as they believed they would be impervious to police bullets.

Allegations were also levelled against his sons, who were accused of providing his muti to the mineworkers.

In an interview with DispatchLIVE in August 2012, shortly after the massacre, Ndzabe Joja denied he was ever involved at Marikana.

“I never gave the mineworkers muti and never interacted with them. I know nothing about that, I don’t know where this all comes from.

“I am God’s man and cannot be the one who says people must forge a war. I would be the one who would urge them to put down weapons and avoid spilling blood.”

Ndzabe Joja, who had been a traditional healer since 1976, became an ordained church minister in 1983.

Despite his own denial, 10 years later, his family say they are still haunted by the allegations.

Until his 2013 death in the Eastern Cape’s ongoing taxi wars, Joja, from Mbizana, always denied his involvement. He also said his sons had never travelled to the mine.

Joja was gunned down at his home at Ludeke Halt village on March 24 2013 by five men. At his funeral, then Uncedo Service Taxi Association president Ntsikelelo Gaehler said Joja’s murder was “not related to Marikana. Joja has been killed by those in the taxi industry”.

Joja had owned a fleet of taxis and was an Uncedo member.

His daughter Nomonde Joja flatly denied her father was ever involved in the Marikana strike, saying the allegations had left her family “in tatters”.

“What hurts us is that it was published across the country that our father was involved when he was not. That traumatises us and does not sit well with our children, even those yet to be born, because as a human being you want to know your history.”

The accusations against her father were partly why the family hit a rough patch shortly after his death.

“Since my dad passed away [my siblings] have lost it — it’s just stress. Others have suffered strokes because of what happened. Then on the news, all over SA, “fake news” was spreading.

“On the news they say sangoma Sikuthele Joja, known as ‘Ndzabe, the Marikana sangoma’. That’s what hurts us,” she said.

“We are still not at peace. Children these days go to the internet and [start asking] about Marikana. And now we have to explain to them that it’s not true that he was involved in the Marikana strike in any way, but that their grandfather was killed by taxi bosses.”

Nomonde said the taxi bosses had admitted as much at his funeral, but her father was being linked to Marikana because it was well known that he was a sangoma and used muti.

“He was someone who worked with taxi people. He worked with Uncedo. The rest of the things we don’t know, and we don’t want them, because they are hurting us to this day.”

She wanted her “daddy’s” name cleared, she said. “We will heal.”

DispatchLIVE visited Joja’s home August 8 to find it a shadow of its former self.

His grave is neglected, the main house is dilapidated and the veranda walls are cracked. A rondavel, which DispatchLIVE understands Joja used as his consulting room, is on the verge of collapse.

His widow, Nompumelelo Joja, said things had not been easy since his death, and were made worse by misleading media reports and allegations by “faceless” people.

“My son suffered a stroke after it was claimed they were involved in the Marikana massacre. Now, my other son has been shot dead during the recent taxi killings. Things are bad.

“We want to clear my husband’s name so that he can rest in peace.”

She said police had told them two of the suspects in her husband’s murder had since died.

DispatchLIVE