WHY THE IS SO MANY GBV MURDERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

 Anonymous Confession

My name is withheld because I want to remain anonymous. I am a young man from Zimbabwe. Fifteen years ago, I came to South Africa with nothing. I worked as a garden boy for many years, living from hand to mouth, until the day I met a Malawian traditional doctor who changed my destiny.

She looked at me and told me I was carrying great wealth in the spirit world. But it was locked. To release it, I needed to perform a ritual.

Her instructions were dark. She told me to go to a busy nightclub and choose a woman who looked like she had been with many men. I had to take her home—willingly—and sleep with her. The woman, she said, would “unlock” my luck.

But there was more. Before the act, I had to place a knife, a pair of black panties, and black candles under the bed. These, the doctor said, would bind the ritual.

I obeyed.

That night, I thought I was opening the door to wealth. But what I opened was a demon.

Afterwards, my life changed overnight. Money began to flow. Opportunities appeared from nowhere. Everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. I became a man of success and power.

But the girl I used was destroyed.

She lost her mind. To this day, she roams half-naked across the country, out of her senses. Worse still, whenever she locks eyes with another woman, the curse passes on. The chosen woman becomes marked for death—another victim of gender-based violence in South Africa.

This, I now understand, is why so many women are being murdered by their partners. The ritual did not bring wealth—it planted a curse. The black panties, the knife, the black candles… they were not symbols of fortune, but of blood.

And now, I am haunted.

Every night, the spirits of murdered women come to me. I hear their cries, I feel their hands pulling me down. Every day, I see their faces in the eyes of strangers.

I cannot escape.

This is my confession and I am not proud at all.