29-year-old Zimbabwean traditional healer has been sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa for the murder of 16-year-old Modjadji Niccol Thoka, whose dismembered remains were hidden at different locations in Botlokwa, in Limpopo province.
Tatenda Sithole was sentenced by the Polokwane High Court. He also received an additional 13 years for defeating the ends of justice and violating a corpse. The sentences will run concurrently, leaving life imprisonment as the effective sentence. The court also declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
The case began on 5 January 2024, when Thoka left home to visit a nearby tuckshop. Sithole, who worked as a traditional healer, met her and took her to an unused house. She was killed there. The State said some of her remains were intended for ritual purposes.
After the killing, Sithole and his accomplice, Brian Mugwira, dismembered Thoka’s body and concealed the remains in several places. Some were placed in a shallow pit. Community members found the remains several days later, prompting an investigation that led police to the two men.
The murder left Thoka’s family facing not only the loss of a teenage daughter, but also the consequences of being unable to give her a proper burial. During Sithole’s sentencing proceedings, the State presented a victim impact statement detailing the effect of the crime on her relatives. It was compiled by court preparation officer Morongwe Moifo and presented by State Advocate Eric Mabapa.
The State described the circumstances as particularly cruel and said the way Thoka’s remains had been concealed had added to her family’s suffering. The family had been deprived of the opportunity to lay her to rest in the usual way.
Sithole pleaded not guilty to all charges during the trial. His conviction followed the investigation into the discovery of Thoka’s remains and the evidence presented in court about the events after she left home.
Mugwira had already been sentenced for his part in the killing. He pleaded guilty to murder and, in October 2024, received 22 years’ imprisonment. At the time of his arrest, police said he had been found with some of Thoka’s body parts.
The two men were arrested separately. Police said Sithole was apprehended on 16 January 2024 at a rental property in Mokomene village. Mugwira was arrested on 26 January in the mountains near Ndzelele village, in the Thohoyandou area. The investigation followed a missing-person report lodged at Botlokwa police station after Thoka disappeared.
Her remains were found on 8 January, three days after she went missing, in the yard of an occupied house. Police said several body parts were missing. The discovery led to an extensive search and investigation by the Limpopo Provincial Missing Person Task Team and other police investigators.
The National Prosecuting Authority welcomed Sithole’s sentence. Limpopo Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Ivy Thenga said: “It can never be overemphasised how important human life is. We will remain vigorous in our pursuit of these cases to serve as a deterrent to would-be murderers.”
Thenga commended Mabapa and investigating officer Sergeant Sindane of the Provincial Detectives for their work in securing the conviction and sentence. The prosecution said the punishment reflected the gravity of the crime and the need to protect human life.
The case is one of several recent South African court matters in which a traditional healer has been convicted of a killing carried out in the context of a purported ritual or consultation. In a separate case in North West, a 30-year-old sangoma, William Methe “Daddy” Thibedi, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2026 for killing Pule Moilwa, a man who had consulted him for a cleansing ceremony in Madibogo.
Police said Thibedi took Moilwa to a secluded area in the bush. Two other people who had accompanied them were left behind. When the consultation took longer than expected, they went to look for the pair and found Moilwa dead. His body had been buried in a shallow grave, and his head and four fingers had been cut off. The case was investigated after a missing-person report was opened in December 2022. It is separate from Thoka’s murder and involved different people and circumstances.
In Thoka’s case, the court heard that the concealment of her remains prevented her family from arranging a proper burial. The victim impact statement brought that loss directly into the sentencing proceedings, alongside the account of how she had been taken from an ordinary trip to a local shop and killed.
The court’s sentence brings the proceedings against Sithole to a close with life imprisonment as the effective term. His accomplice is serving a separate 22-year sentence. Thoka’s family, meanwhile, must continue to live with the loss and with the manner in which her remains were found and recovered.