The bail application of the five accused in the Tshitavha-Sambandou and Folovhodwe grave robbery cases, ended on a sour note for them, when all the accused were denied bail.
The five have been applying for bail in the Makuya Periodical Court since last month and were denied bail on Friday. Their case was postponed to 13 December for further investigations.
In denying them bail, Magistrate Avhurengwi Singo said the case was the first of its kind in Vhembe and that communities are still in shock. She commended the prosecution for proving that there is a strong case against the accused.
The five, among them two traditional healers, stand accused of violating graves and corpses and defeating the ends of justice in the two villages.
Traditional healers Erick Kwinda (49) and Avhapfani Nemungadi (42), Daniel Nephawe (23), Colbert Nemasisi (29) and secondary school pupil, Mathadzhila Munyai (20) were all arrested at different locations. Nephawe was arrested in the Western Cape almost three months ago.
The shocking allegations that body parts are stolen from corpses and then sold, came to light three months ago, after a 17-year-old former girlfriend of one of the accused allegedly confided to members of the community. She told the story of how she and her boyfriend used to wake up at night and dug graves to steal body parts that were later sold to traditional healers.
Police dug up five graves and the suspicions were confirmed when some of the body parts were found missing. In one of the graves, the head of the corpse was found missing while in some other graves, bones were found to be missing.
Mr David Ligunuba, a community leader at Tshitavha, said that the community was happy about the outcome of the bail application. He urged the police to work extra hard to find the remains of their loved ones, so that they could be buried with dignity.