Muti

Botanical medicine prescribed by an inyanga or herbal healer is generally known as "muthi", but the term can apply to other traditional medical formulations, including those that are zoological or mineral in composition.

[2] Isicakathi is a term that is used by Xhosa people when referring to plants with supposed pharmacological and therapeutic properties that are used as medicine for various ailments.

[3] The plants that fall under the isicakathi category differ according to the districts in the Eastern Cape, hence it is a general term used when referring to traditional medicine.

[3] There are eleven species of plants that fall under isicakathi, namely Commelina africana, Agapanthus praecox, Chlorophytum comosum, Ledebouria ovatifolia, Ranunculus multifidus, Thunbergia atriplicifolia, Kohautia amatymbica, Plantago major, Gazania linearis, Helichrysum pedunculatum and Senecio coronatus.

[5] Ledebouria ovatifolia is used for medicinal purposes, including pregnancy, diarrhoea, influenza, backaches, skin irritations and wounds.

[8] Gazania linearis is applied on small cuts made on the body close to the joints to protect someone from evil spirits.

Erythrina lysistemon is used to induce labour pains during the childbirth process via pieces of the trunk's bark bound together and infused for the woman to drink.

These are not human sacrifices directly, but rather involve the murder of someone in order to harvest body parts for incorporation into traditional medicines and rituals.

In February 2010, Deputy Provincial Commissioner William Mpembe of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in North West Province said that "muti murders, particularly those involving young children, seem to be on the rise in the Tshwane areas including Soshanguve, Garankuwa and Rietgat".

[14] That same month, African traditional healers and the Gauteng government convened at a seminar in Pretoria, South Africa to root out the "evil practice of mutilating human bodies for purposes of muti making.