Riot Hlatshwayo

A policeman and a state prosecutor were scared witless yesterday morning when they saw an old and semi-naked man standing in the policeman's yard.

They thought he was a wizard because they did not know him and he had a kanga draped around his hips. It was four o' clock in the morning.

Inspector Edwel Mkhonto first saw the man when he got to his home after fetching his wife from night shift.

He was so scared that he ran next door to legal eagle Moses Sibanda and reported what he had seen.

He also shouted to other neighbours that the "wizard" was leaning on the fence around his home in Chavela Gaza village.

Sibanda said he was frightened by the sight of the old man.

"The fact that he was semi-naked and found at a policeman's home at that time of the morning scared us," he said.

Other residents of the village, near Acornhoek, swarmed around the disoriented old-timer to get a better look at him.

Many were agitated and were overheard to mutter: "Burn him. He's a wizard."

Fortunately somebody realised the "wizard" was just a confused old man.

They quickly called the Acornhoek police before anything horrible could happen to him.

Inspector Joseph Mogakane confirmed the incident and told Sowetan that he had personally driven to the scene.

"But on arrival I was informed that some of my colleagues had arrived earlier and taken the man to his home in another village," Mogakane said.

Mogakane said he did not know why the old man had visited the policeman's house or what exactly had happened to him.