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Mhangwani gives his pig a drink.

“I am a normal person - there is no curse on me!”

 

News started spreading the past few months of a man with a cursed pig. The pig was apparently following the man wherever he went and some residents believed it may have been part of an evil spell cast upon the animal.

When Limpopo Mirror followed up on the rumours, it turned out that this is nothing more than a man with a very special and loving pet. The story, however, is still worth telling.

A black pig trots proudly after Lawrence Gezani Mhangwani (29) when he walks around his family's yard and strolls around the dusty, hilly paths in Mbhokota village, near Elim.

In the village and in social media, people have exchanged images which shows a man of medium height, walking down the road with a pig following him. These images are discussed in buses and taxis, with different speakers commenting that they have even visited Mbhokota to see a man who has been cursed with a black pig. They said he was a thief, who had stolen from the wrong people who had then retaliated by putting a curse of a pig on him.

“All those who started these rumours are wrong; they are misleading the world,” says Mhangwani. “I am normal. I bought this pig as a piglet last year for R400. I trained it to be sociable. This pig will soon give birth to piglets which will also follow her as she walks behind me on the road. Now tell me here. What would talkers say about that, eh?”

There has also been a 'bad' rumour that the pig follows Mhangwani to the bus stop. When he climbs in a taxi, she remains behind, but once Mhangwani gets off the taxi, be it at Elim or Tzaneen, the black pig materialises and starts following him. “It's not true,” he says.

Mhangwani’s wife, Ms Ndivhudza Maphala, says she fails to understand why people should spread wrong and negative information about her husband. “This pig also follows me when I leave home,” she says. “Our pig is cute, and she loves people.”

Bhuti Chicken Muchavi, a friend of the family, confirmed that the pig is nothing more than an interesting pet. “People phoned to tell me that my friend was crazy and that he had been cursed with a pig,” says Chicken. “I decided to check on him. I found that the pig they spoke about was well known to me as his domestic animal.”

Last Wednesday, Chicken requested Mhangwani to respond to villagers’ questions about his ‘cursed’ situation and state of mind. “I wanted him to set the record straight,” says Chicken. Mhangwani then brought his pig along and answered many questions to prove his sanity. In the phone video taken on this occasion, people said: “He has not lost his sanity. He’s still the same guy we know. They [people who said he was mad] are liars.”

Mhangwani says he loves animals. Some time ago he kept two doves in his room as pets. “Nobody said anything about my doves; why must there be a noise about my pig?” he asks. “These people who spread such malicious rumours about me only bring curses to my life. My house mysteriously caught fire over the weekend, which destroyed all my clothes and belongings.”

Lawrence Gezani Mhangwani plays with his pig.
The pig follows her owner, Lawrence Gezani Mhangwani.
Mhangwani (centre) with friends, sculptor Patrick Manyike and Chicken.
 

Date:27 June 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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