The Jamestown cops believed that Ncedi was using witchcraft and were too terrified to try and find him:
The Volksblad journalist then phones Maphisa on his cellphone from Bloemfontein and gets his comment, and it’s very enlightening: Maphisa tells Volksblad:
• ‘We think Ncedu is using witchcraft – he just disappeared:’
• “Ncedu (the accused) ‘is using the tokolosi to fight for him. When we got close he ran away and just disappeared. We couldn’t find him. We think he is using witchcraft but I don’t believe that thing, I will still catch him. He knows I will catch him, the people are lying, that worker (Polla) talks shite. I told the farmers he does too. He’s lying. He makes up his own stories. Yes he was in Dordrecht. The suspect ran away and we fired shots. Who caught that man the first time, me, Maphisa. We caught him a lot of times. Then he stays in the jail for six of two months and the sentence is suspended.’
• Background: “Witchcraft and Policing in SA: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/1887/12920/2/ASC-075287668-076-01.pdf
