A trial-awaiting murder suspect did not let his incarceration bother him and even hurled insults and threatened a journalist, who had taken photos of him, while he was still in jail. How the prisoner managed to get access to a cellphone and remain active on social media has not yet been explained.
Azwidohwi Gadisi, a well-known and highly controversial traditional healer from the Khubvi area, appeared in the Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court again on Wednesday, 7 August. He is accused of beating his wife, Nyelisani Phathutshedzo Masakona (32), to death on 27 July this year. After allegedly committing the crime, Gadisi turned himself in to the police.
A week before he had allegedly killed his wife, Gadisi was trending on social media after posting a video clip showing a large amount of money. He claimed to be an inyanga with magical powers, boasting that he could help barren women conceive and that he could buy 10 cows with the cash he made in a single day.
However, Gadisi's social-media activity did not cease after his arrest. Last Thursday, a day after his court appearance, he began posting insulting and intimidating messages on Facebook. His anger was clearly directed at the journalists who had taken photos of him in court.
In one of his messages, Gadisi described a Limpopo Mirror journalist as "a shapeless bastard who looks like a baobab trunk" (translated from Tshivenda).
The question of how someone incarcerated at Thohoyandou Correctional Services could have access to a cellphone and social media remains unanswered. Attempts to reach Mrs Tshidi Mapole, the provincial spokesperson for the Provincial Department of Correctional Services, were unsuccessful at the time of our going to press.
However, prison warders at Thohoyandou Prison, located in Vondwe village, revealed that many prisoners use cellphones and other electronic devices. When asked how inmates obtained such gadgets while in custody, one warder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that most are smuggled in by corrupt prison warders. "Some are brought in by visitors hidden inside food, while others are thrown over the fence by friends during the night. Corrupt warders then collect them in the morning," she said.
When Gadisi appeared in court last Wednesday, he appeared composed, staring at journalists without blinking. His case was postponed to 26 August.