All hell broke loose then as the villagers started shouting. Chief Ndlela grabbed MaNgobese by the arm so she couldn’t run away.

The witch doctor was sitting on his backside; his smell was overpowering and I turned and vomited.

“I gave her different kinds of herbs, and instructed her to mix them with the water she used to wash her underwear. ‘Your man will come home within a month,’ I said, ‘and when he arrives you should not let him spend the first night with you, but with the first wife, so that when he starts getting sick, no one can suspect you.’”

There was a rumbling in the crowd and KaZwide shouted out: “You wanted to blame me for Mkhulu’s untimely death? You are a witch!”

The witch doctor went on. “I told her I would give her oil to smear on her eyebrows so that everyone would see his mistress as a killer not her. So this woman said, ‘Yebo, Mnumzane’, and I knew she wanted him dead. This woman, the one you call MaNgobese, was responsible for the death of her husband and, yes, she asked me to help her kill KaZwide.”

The villagers turned on MaNgobese, insulting her and calling her a witch and all sorts of evil names. She collapsed, but still the villagers shouted.

“What have you done?”

“You, who are one of us?”

All MaNgobese managed to say was: “Ngiyaxolisa, bantu beNkosi (I’m deeply sorry, people of God). Greed and bitterness got the better of me. I was so dissatisfied with my own plans and I became cruel when things didn’t go as I had planned. Please, KaZwide, try to find it in your pure and gentle heart to forgive me.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

But nobody paid attention to MaNgobese’s crocodile tears and fake apology.

I could see that Mzwempi was ashamed of his mother. He was sitting a little way off in the veld with his head in his hands.

Chief Ndlela knew he would have to get the situation under control or the villagers would stone MaNgobese and the witch doctor and maybe even Mzwempi too.

“You have two days to pack all your things and leave this place, both of you.” The chief pointed to the witch doctor and MaNgobese. “You are both evil and twisted in the head; you disgust me. Mzwempi, you may stay behind, my son.”

“No, Chief, I cannot. Even though my mother has done a terrible thing, she is my mother and I love her. I’ll go with her and make sure she regains some goodness.”

All three left immediately. MaNgobese and Mzwempi never even returned to their rondavel to fetch their things. The chief called on Baba Mdletshe to sort out all the wild animals kept by the witch doctor and to destroy his murderous potions.

A week after MaNgobese was exiled, the village felt peaceful, flowers blossomed, grass turned green and people were happy.

“God is amazing! We were living with a snake among us, without knowing. Thank you, Nkanyezi, for being brave enough to tell us everything.” KaZwide said.

As I walked to the river, driving my grandma’s cattle in front of me, my mind turned to Mkhulu. I missed my grandfather and our talks. He did not deserve to die the way he did.

“Hambe Kahle, Mkhulu,” I said aloud.

The End

***

Tell us: What do you think of what Mzwempi did for his mother? Do you think she can change her ways?