Two men have been jailed in Zambia for attempting to use witchcraft in a plot to kill President Hakainde Hichilema, marking an unusual case under the country’s colonial-era Witchcraft Act.
Leonard Phiri of Zambia and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, a Mozambican, were sentenced to two years in prison after being arrested in December 2024 with charms, including a live chameleon, which prosecutors said were intended for a ritual against the head of state.
Magistrate Fine Mayambu, who delivered the verdict, said the pair represented a danger to both the president and the nation.
“It is my considered view that the convicts were not only the enemy of the head of state but were also enemies of all Zambians,” he stated.
According to the prosecution, the men were allegedly hired by a fugitive former MP to bewitch Hichilema. In court, Phiri demonstrated how pricking the chameleon’s tail was believed to cause death within five days. Both defendants admitted owning the charms but insisted they were traditional healers, not sorcerers.
Despite pleas from their lawyer, Agrippa Malando, for leniency and a fine on the grounds that they were first-time offenders, the magistrate rejected the appeal. Instead, Phiri and Candunde were sentenced on two counts: two years for “professing” witchcraft and six months for possession of charms. With the sentences running concurrently, they will serve two years in total.
Magistrate Mayambu emphasized that belief in witchcraft remains widespread in Zambia and other African nations, even without scientific proof. He noted the law exists to shield communities from fear and exploitation.
“The question is not whether the accused are wizards or actually possess supernatural powers. It is whether they represented themselves as such, and the evidence clearly shows they did,” he ruled, according to BBC’s report.
President Hichilema, who has previously stated he does not believe in witchcraft, has not commented on the trial.
Legal expert Dickson Jere told the BBC that the Witchcraft Act, introduced in 1914 during British colonial rule, is rarely used but still serves a protective function. He explained it was designed to prevent mob attacks, especially against elderly women accused of causing deaths through sorcery.
The high-profile case unfolded against the backdrop of another national controversy involving witchcraft claims, the unresolved burial of former President Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa in June. Disputes between the government and Lungu’s family have fueled speculation about occult motives behind demands that he be interred in Zambia. The government has firmly denied those allegations, but Lungu’s body remains in a morgue months after his passing.
