Police investigate church torture claims

While alleged church torture victim Sikhumbuzo Gotyana is still recovering in hospital, police have confirmed they are investigating the young man's assault, allegedly at the hands of so-called healers.

The parents of the young mentally disabled epilepsy sufferer who was allegedly left for dead after he had been tied up with a rope and deprived of food for months, have opened an assault case with the police.

The docket has now been transferred from Port Elizabeth to the Bitji police station close to Mqhekezweni in Mthatha, where the 23-year-old Gotyana was held in a church,  believed to be affiliated to the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), for seven months.

Sikhumbuzo’s parents - Phumla Gotyana, 53, and Notshe Ntshinka, 65 - said they had been told a healer at the church would cure him of the “evil spirits” they believed had taken over his body.

However, instead of the so-called healers ridding Sikhumbuzo of demons, he was found to have been tortured, with his body riddled with cuts and bruises.

Several deep slashes to his hands, arms and ankles were visible evidence of how he had been tied up, as his father found him on May 18 when they had received a desperate call to go fetch their ailing son.

He had also lost a considerable amount of weight, according to his parents.

The Herald broke the story. 

“We were invited by our ZCC church leaders in Kwazakhele to go back to Mthatha, but found that the place where Sikhumbuzo was has closed down. People there told us the church closed its doors after the story appeared in the paper,” his mother said.

“We’ve also finally received a case number and we were told it [the case] had been transferred to Mthatha,” she added.

Sikhumbuzo was admitted in hospital where he is still recovering.

“He’s doing well, better than we thought because we were so scared he was not going to make it,” Gotyana said.

Gotyana said the healers - including a man only known as "Tshangisa", who they had dealt with when they took Sikhumbuzo to the church in Mthatha - were nowhere to be found.

“We hope police will find and arrest them,” she said.

Police spokesman Colonel Sibongile Soci confirmed the docket had been allocated to an investigating officer.

Soci said Mthatha police were awaiting “certain documents which were not included in the docket” from the New Brighton police station where the case was originally opened.  

Despite acknowledging receipt of media queries, the ZCC have not officially responded to requests for comment.