The ‘witch doctor’ and the nurse

… woman living a nightmare after selling her N$1,4m Windhoek house to a ‘witch doctor’

A decade ago, Elisabeth Neis was a successful registered nurse raising her two children in a three-bedroom home in Windhoek.

Now, retired at age 66, Neis lives in a shack, scraping by on her pension while suffering from a heart condition.

Her health declined, she says, because she trusted a ‘witch doctor’ who she accuses of defrauding her out of her home while claiming to help her fight evil spirits.

Although she lost an earlier court battle, she’s hoping the High Court may help her recover some of what she’s lost.

Neis’ caregiving instincts blinded her to one of her patients. A man she’d cared for in hospital told her about his financial distress with such sincerity that she agreed to loan him N$100 000, her entire life savings.

Upon his release, he disappeared with her money.

Devastated by this loss, Neis confided in her sister who directed her to a young Malawian ‘which doctor’, Kenedy Kasume, in 2014.

“Kasume became a person trusted by myself, to whom I told all my problems,” Neis told The Namibian last month. Shortly after they met, ominous things began to happen.

“It all began on an evening in 2014,” her daughter Elizeth Neis (36) told the High Court. “My brother came into the house frightened. He said to mom and I that there was a calabash outside.”

Shocked and frightened, they rushed outside with their mother.

“My mom then phoned someone to come to the house. After a few minutes, a man, whom I later came to know as Kasume, came to the house. I had never seen him or heard of him before. He came to collect the calabash and left with it. It was almost as if he was just around the corner,” Elizeth said.

‘HE ADVISED ME TO SELL’

On social media, Kasume identifies himself as “Dr Andrew Sacharia”, a herbalist who can chase away evil spirits, remove bad luck and return lost lovers.

“Kasume said I had many problems because there were evil spirits in my home and that no one could stay in it, except him. He advised me to sell my home to him to rid the evil spirits,” Neis said. Neis said she agreed to sell Kasume her N$1,4 million-house for N$200 000, because he promised to give her a much nicer house valued at N$2 million.

“He influenced me to accept this advice and I signed the documents prepared by him and Josephina Amutse’s conveyancer for the transfer of my house to Amutse’s name,” Neis said. The court says Amutse is Kasume’s girlfriend.

The case, which has been unfolding in the Windhoek High Court for over 10 years now, continues with trial on 22 September. The victim is represented by lawyer Rachel Mondo while the accused is represented by Kadhila Amoomo.
Kasume denied any wrongdoing.

WALLOWING IN POVERTY

Neis retired from Katutura State Hospital in 2018, but the middle-class retirement she so carefully planned became an unrealised dream.

“I have been living in a shack in Okombahe since 2021, when I left Windhoek. I survive on a government pension which is not enough because that’s also what I pay the doctors from,” she said. She said due to the stress of losing her property, her heart has not been well and she rarely gets to see her two grandchildren.

“I lost everything. The doctor says my heart is not working well and it is failing,” she said.

Doctors have inserted a pacemaker to regulate her heart rhythm. She’s also had to mourn the death of her mother, who died last year at age 94.

DAUGHTER’S NIGHTMARE

At first, her daughter refused to leave the family home.

“Not long after the calabash incident, my mother told us that our house needed to be cleansed. If we did not move, one of us would die.

Kasume supposedly told her that there was a spirit of an old man that was haunting the house and the spirit would kill us,” Elizeth said. Kasume helped the family move, but Elizeth says she was forced out.

“We moved to a house in Wanaheda. While there, mom told me she was busy renovating the house. I did not believe her because she never went to check on the renovations and she didn’t even know what colour they were painting the walls,” she said.

“I was very upset with my mom for believing Kasume,” Elizeth said.

“Mom said Kasume was paying our rent in the Wanaheda house, while he was looking for another house. . . She would say that she loves us so much and doesn’t want any of us to die,” she said.

STATE OF MIND

Neis’ brother, Zebedeus Uiseb, says his sister was not in the right state of mind when she sold her house.

“When I spoke to her during my visits to Windhoek, she did not seem to understand the magnitude of what she had done, she was losing her house and she did not seem to mind,” Uiseb told the High Court.

“She was very protective over Kasume,” he said.

Uiseb said he was not aware that Neis gave up her house, until relatives called to tell him she had accommodation problems in Windhoek.

“I was surprised and concerned because to my knowledge, she owned a house. I confronted her. She told us that she sold the house to Kasume,” he said.

“She said she was afraid to stay in the house, because it was witched,” he added.

‘STRONG HERBALIST’

In his affidavit filed in the High Court, Kasume defended the purchase of the house, saying he paid for it on 29 August 2014.

“Neis made a sworn declaration to this effect on her own, in her sound and sober sense on 1 September 2014. But during February 2015, Neis abruptly visited me with a local councillor to request for an alleged final payment of N$10 000,” Kasume says.

He says Neis’ family were present at the meeting where he gave her N$30 000.

Kasume adds: “I have since the date of sale improved the deplorable dwelling and incurred costs of rebuilding, renovating and extending the property to the value of N$1,1 million at 2 August 2017.”

Kasume says the court case has cost him N$150 000 to date.

He says there was no valuation certificate to prove the property was woth N$1 million at the time of sale.

Kasume adds: “I was the one who incurred costs in renovating the said property and substantially raised its market value.”

Neis’ claims that an agreement was struck between her and Kasume to give her N$2 million to buy another house was dismissed by the High Court in July 2020.

In an interview with The Namibian on Monday, Kasume said he helped Neis because she was like a mother to him.

“Her house was in debt over water and loans and she offered that I buy it. So, everything she says now is a lie,” he said.
He said he is not a ‘witch doctor’ but a herbalist.

“I do not want you to mix Kenedy and Dr Sacharia. Dr Sacharia is my registered business and I pay tax for it. I don’t want my business tarnished. I am not a bad person. I help people now. I give them food and money. There is a difference between a witchdoctor and a herbalist.”