The Mberengwa duo comprising of twins Tafadzwa and Tanaka of the Musandu family, Mposi Village under headman Guta, Chief Mataga are on the run.

This follows a defiance of a cultural initiation ceremony where they were expected to inherit artefacts which include witchcraft from their late father’s estate.

In Zimbabwe, witchcraft can be inherited from one’s mother or some maternal ancestor who was her-self a witch or possession by an alien spirit or acquired through medicines provided by another witch.

Similarly, men can also become heir to witchcraft from their ancestors and may acquire it through means such as those already alluded to in relation to women.A neighbor of the twins who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the immediate family confirmed the occultic happenings surrounding the Musandu family.

“Twins a male and a female are actually on the run after a ceremony where they were set to be initiated in the dark operations of witchcraft had to be abandoned midway,” said the neighbor.

“The process was already underway, where the duo was expected to assume ownership of all their father’s estate including the traditional artefacts and the presiding traditional officer was already undertaking the initiation process when they eloped”.

“They are assumed to have skipped out of the country and the process needs to be completed for their father’s spirit to rest or else they would know no peace,” said the villager.

Under local cultural values, the twins have to come back to complete the initiation process.

What makes the matter complex is that the law enforcement agencies cannot have their hand in the matter since there is no law which criminalizes witchcraft in the country.

Such cases are often regarded as family issues and the law heavily subscribes to the local culture which values families.

Witchcraft is a manifestation of mystical forces which may be in-born in a person, inherited, or acquired and the commonly used methods of detecting witches in Zimbabwe include divination either by spirit possession or the throwing of bones which is undertaken by a traditional healer.

The belief in occult forces is deeply-rooted in Zimbabwe, regardless of the levels of education, religion and social class.

Zimbabweans generally tend to believe that a realm of the occult exists and regularly interacts with the physical sphere of existence.