In a case that sounds like it was ripped from the pages of a fantasy novel, two men are now behind bars after allegedly plotting to hex Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema with a live chameleon, mysterious charms, and a ritual promising death in five days. No, this isn’t a new Netflix thriller , it’s real life in Zambia’s courtroom.
Leonard Phiri and Jasten Mabulese Candunde, nationalities Zambian and Mozambican respectively, were caught red-handed with an arsenal of supernatural swag in December 2024. While the duo insisted they were just humble traditional healers, the court was not convinced, charging them under a colonial-era Witchcraft Act last dusted off in 1914.
Magistrate Fine Mayambu didn’t mince his words: these weren’t just petty spellcasters but “enemies of all Zambians,” apparently armed with a chameleon weapon capable of causing death within five days if its tail was pricked during the ritual. Yes, you read that right ,a chameleon, the slow-moving color-changing lizard, was reportedly the star of this deadly supernatural show.
The prosecution claimed the men were hired by a fugitive ex-MP, turning this from a local magic trick into a political thriller. The accused now face two years in prison for “professing” witchcraft and another six months for charm possession, sentences to be served concurrently because apparently, even curses come with legal fine print.
The Witchcraft Act, a relic from the colonial era originally designed to protect grandmothers from angry mobs, has rarely been used in recent decades until now. The case has sparked nationwide debate: Should ancient laws about curses and hexes still have a place in Zambia’s modern legal system, or is it time to send the chameleons back to the wild?
President Hichilema has yet to comment, maintaining his public skepticism of witchcraft, but the trial has certainly cast a spell of intrigue over the nation’s politics.
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