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Confined to the house because she could not fit through the door

CONFINED: She was so obese that she was virtually a prisoner at her own bedroom. Pic. Riot Hlatshwayo. © Sowetan.
CONFINED: She was so obese that she was virtually a prisoner at her own bedroom. Pic. Riot Hlatshwayo. © Sowetan.

Riot Hlatshwayo

Granny Nghwazi Khoza, 70, a Mpumalanga sangoma, who had been confined to her bedroom for many years because she could barely fit through the door, has died.

Khoza, who lived in Pienaar outside Nelspruit, died on Friday morning after an illness.

She was famous for her rite of throwing bones for her customers on her marital bed. Khoza could not fetch her monthly pension because she could not walk. But government officials always delivered it to her.

Khoza was married to Mahlathini Mahesi, a bishop in a local church.

The couple were comfortable with the apparent contradiction between Christianity and traditional healing.

"The muti that I use to treat my patients comes from plants.

"According to the same Holy Bible that my husband preaches from, those plants were also made by God," Khoza told Sowetan recently.

"It is the same God who gives me strength and power to heal people from as far away as Cape Town," she said.

Her bedroom had no toilet so she had to be carried by a number of her sangoma initiates when the need arose.

They forced her through the door to a toilet outside the house.

She is survived by seven children, a husband and a number of grandchildren including the apple of her eye, four-year-old Samantha.

Khoza's eldest daughter, Mary, 51, who also trained as a sangoma, confirmed her mother's death.

As Mary used to travel throughout South Africa and other countries treating sick people on behalf of her mother, it is believed she will automatically take over from her.

Details relating to how the family managed to carry Khoza to the mortuary and about her funeral arrangements were not available at the time of going to press.

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