The Rietgat SAPS would like to warn the community and visitors who frequent the Mabopane Station about foreign traditional healers who are targeting unsuspecting senior citizens who have just received their pension payouts from their former employers.
Although some senior citizens gets “traditional assistance” BUT the consultation process often results in unsuspecting poor citizens getting conned and milked their hard earned life savings money by these foreign healers.
Rietgat’s Spokesperson Captain Stephen Maluleka said “As the SAPS, we understand that traditional healing processes are often peculiar and very discreet in nature, but we would like to warn our community not to fall for healers that are too good to be true. It has come to our attention that some victims, visited these dodgy and dingy shacks around the Mabopane Station under the hypnosis that they will get rich quick or be exorcised off evil spells.”
As the police, we would like to reiterate that the community must refrain from dubious practices but instead resort to the old ways of consulting to traditional healers who stays in their own houses and known by the community they live in. It should also be noted though that our aim is not to besmirch loyal and credible healers but to protect the community from charlatans.
TIPS TO AVOID BEING SCAMMED BY ‘HEALERS’
- Before committing to paying a large amount of money for consultation, compare with other healers.
- Check the credentials of the healer. Healers have an association like SOAHA (South African Healers Association), make sure if that healer is registered.
- Verify the information from people who referred you to the healer before committing.
- Check the history of the healer, how have they been helping people from that area or premises.
- Check with the local police station if there were no cases opened against the healer.
- Listen to your gut-feel, if something is too good to be true, then there is something behind it.
- Let your family know that you are consulting a healer and where because some are capable of chopping people’s parts for muti.
