marie claire local investigation ✽

69

Several well-known SA psychics claim they are often asked to help solve crimes, while the police maintain they are only ever a last resort. But should they be consulted at all? Can a medium really help to find a missing child – or are we right to be sceptical? Words Zodwa Kumalo

plenty of people who believe in Sue’s gifts of foresight and her ability to contact the dead, but having your future predicted is very different from investigating crimes. When the life of a missing child is at stake, or police are trying to track down a serial killer, can they afford to trust the visions of self-professed psychics?

Sue believes her gifts can be trusted. She was born in Benoni and says her mother used to give her hidings when she shared her visions about inappropriate things. ‘I remember being about five and watching my mom rock my three-month-old sister to sleep. As she put her down, I told her the angels were coming to fetch her.’ Sue’s eyes mist over as she relates the story. ‘The next morning she’d passed away and my older sister blamed me for her death – she said I was the devil’s child. For many years I believed it was my fault. Then, when I was nine, at the family Christmas lunch, I blurted out that I could see a baby growing in my sister’s stomach. She was 18 and unmarried – in an Afrikaans family that is shameful, so you can imagine how that announcement ruined Christmas.’

Years later, Sue has embraced her visions and says she has helped the police find missing children. When six-year-old Mikayla Rossouw disappeared from her home in Swellendam last year, Sue received a call from the missing girl’s mother, Elsabe, who knew of her from Sue’s

hen Maud Boshoff saw her deceased daughter Mary Ann’s face appear in all the mirrors of her

Vereeniging home last year, she immediately called Sue du Randt. Sue, a mystic medium, says she’s seen many weird and wonderful things in her life – but nothing had prepared her for this. The young woman’s face was appearing in all reflective surfaces, and she was moving her mouth.

Maud had found 20-something Mary Ann hanging from a rope in her garage in October 2006 and believed she had committed suicide. When her daughter’s face appeared in her home, she could see Mary Ann was trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t hear her or make out the words. Sue, however, says she was able to cross over to make contact and hear the message Mary Ann was so desperate to convey. ‘Your daughter wants to tell you she didn’t kill herself,’ she told Maud. ‘She was murdered.’

Unfortunately, Mary Ann had been cremated so an autopsy couldn’t be done and the case wasn’t reopened. But according to Sue, Maud has hired a City Cops private detective to investigate.

Sue is based in Johannesburg and usually consults from her sitting room, surrounded by porcelain ornaments and framed family photos. For R700 a session she can help clients make contact with lost loved ones. There are

W

the search for answers Opposite, clockwise from

top sangoma Dr nokuthula Phumelele Langa, who

started having visions at 15; medium Jackie Pritchard says she has worked with

police on cases; a report in the times on Mikayla

rossouw’s disappearance. Below when sheldean

human went missing, Jackie provided information on

her whereabouts.

Crossing Over radio shows and found her via a website.

‘When Elsabe called, I knew instantly that Mikayla was dead but I didn’t have the heart to tell her,’ says Sue. Then the superintendent on the case contacted her and Sue described Mikayla’s injuries, saying that she could see a big left hand around the child’s neck. At first her intuition about where the body could be found turned out to be wrong, but after seeing Mikayla’s mother appear on TV a few days later, she says the child’s whereabouts became clear and she called the police. A massive area was searched, but Sue claims that Mikayla’s body was found where she said it was, just a few houses away from her home. An autopsy showed that Mikayla had been indecently assaulted, raped and strangled and her neighbour, Ulrich du Toit, was later found guilty of these crimes.

Captain Nicky Alberts, acting station commissioner at the Swellendam police station and head of the investigating team on the Mikayla Rossouw case, says police were working with about six or seven psychics at the time of the child’s disappearance – and all information they gave was inconclusive. ‘We have to follow all leads because you never know whether the information will turn out to help or hinder the investigation.’ But Alberts says he’s never worked on a case that a psychic has helped solve.

people’dead

‘i see

marie claire local investigation ✽

70

Sue herself says the police can’t give credit to psychics and mediums because it would open a floodgate of false leads. ‘I don’t trust any other psychics or mediums in this country,’ she says. ‘In SA, I’ve yet to meet one who can do what I can do. Abroad, I know of three. The others just seem out to take advantage of people. Psychics have called me pretending to be family members and asked me for information about murders or missing people, trying to glean information and take the credit. Now I only speak to the investigating police officer on the case.’

‘Sometimes the police consult with more than one psychic on a case and I believe it leads to confusion. I was working on a case in Namibia in 2006 in which more than 20 women had been murdered. I had an altercation with an inspector who was working with myself and another psychic. I was constantly being contradicted and having to prove myself. I ended up abandoning the case. I had done everything I could, from pointing out the suspects’ houses to constructing profiles of the killers. Now those suspects are still on the loose.’

Jackie Pritchard is also a mystic medium, and is based in Cape Town. ‘I can see and

communicate with the dead,’ she says. ‘I see them in the flesh, as whole human beings, and I feel in my own body how they died. Dead people smell like camphor cream, grease and powder.’ She remembers, at age three, seeing old people sitting around her home watching TV and how her mother, who was also a clairvoyant, took it in her stride. Turns out they were dead people. Her mother taught her how to read crystal balls when she was seven. ‘It was a gift I could use to tune

‘All avenues we’ve gone down have proved unsuccessful or inadmissible in court.’

R ecently, sangomas have also been called in to help solve crimes.

Dr Nokuthula Phumelele Langa says she was 15 when she started having visions of deaths and accidents involving her family and friends. Also a qualified medical doctor, Nokuthula attended initiation school and now consults with clients about their finances, careers and romance and is occasionally asked to perform cleansing rituals.

Nokuthula asks her domestic worker to fetch her a blanket, some tissues and a container of snuff. ‘My ancestors have asked me to take a bit of snuff so I’m doing this for them – not for me – otherwise they will nag me the whole night,’ she says.

‘I live in an area where the number of burglaries is high,’ Nokuthula continues, ‘but my house has never been broken into. When one of my neighbours made this observation, I explained that I perform rituals to protect my house and even my car from harm, evil and bad energy and he asked if I could do the same for him, so I charged him for it.’

Nokuthula says she once gave a client muti after a break-in and he came back to tell her that the robbers had returned to apologize and return the goods. She says she has yet to be approached by the police for help, but would be happy to do so. ‘I’m not scared of anything or anyone.’

Jackie is critical of the police as she believes they call on psychics for help, then refuse to acknowledge their assistance. ‘If you ask the police whether they believe in psychics, even after you’ve proven to them that we can see dead people, they still say no.

But it’s understandable,’ she continues, ‘because there are too many charlatans out there. Can you imagine if the police started giving credibility to psychics? Everyone who claims to have clairvoyant abilities would be phoning in with false leads. As a psychic I’m looking for affirmation from the police for my work, not fame. I charge R400 for a 15-minute consultation, but I never charge for police work. It’s my way of giving back.’

This is clearly an emotional subject. But what of mothers whose children go missing? Does she genuinely believe she can help? ‘The only time I’ve ever felt compelled to call was with the disappearance of Michaela Hunter,’ she says. ‘My baby was three weeks old at the time and I remember thinking I would lose my mind if anything happened to her. And then I saw a pamphlet [with a picture of ] Michaela pleading for any information. So I called Michaela’s father and told him that his baby was not far from home and that it would be two years before he saw her again. Two years later, they were reunited, but understandably, at the time I predicted that, he did not have much to say to me.’

It’s not always a good idea to make contact with the parents

of missing children, Jackie admits. The premonition would need to be particularly strong.

Psychics were contacted in connection with the six girls believed to have been kidnapped by Gert van Rooyen – a famous South African mystery that was briefly in the spotlight again last year. None of the leads, psychic or otherwise, ever paid off.

So why do psychics get information about some cases and not others? ‘People have asked me why I haven’t been able to solve the [Van Rooyen] mystery and what I always say is not everyone wants to be found,’ says Jackie. ‘A lot of it has to do with how the families react to their disappearance and their involvement in the situation.’

Micki Pistorius, SA’s top serial-killer profiler and investigator, says that she has never known a lead from a psychic to result in a case being solved. ‘I remember working on the station strangler case until late at night. Only once all our work was done and all our leads had run dry could we afford to visit psychics. They used to phone all the time, wanting to offer their services. In my experience, it never led to anything. I can remember some being able to describe a crime scene without ever having been there or having read about it – but none of them gave us leads that led to arrests or finding missing people.’

If it was a choice between the Scorpions and the psychics, there’d be no contest, but in SA 1 500 children still disappear every year and it’s their parents who most want to believe in the power of mediums. And for those whose work has assisted the police, by coincidence or intuition, using their gift to help is not a choice, it’s an obligation. n

Lost forever From top when medium sue du randt was called by Mikayla rossouw’s mother, she says she knew instantly that the child was dead; one of the six girls who is believed to have been kidnapped by Gert van rooyen. although psychics were consulted to help find the girls, none of the leads ever paid off.

‘Even after you’ve proven to police that we can see,

they still say they don’t believe in psychics’

PhOt

Ogra

Phs

mar

c sh

oul,

igor

/infi

dels

and

©th

e ti

mes

hai

r an

d m

ake-

uP k

im w

inte

rsal

e/re

d ho

t op

s an

d jo

hann

i nel

/infi

dels

71

the Big testZodwa Kumalo has a phone reading with sue du randt to see how accurate she is…

sue ‘Your gran passed away a few years ago. You didn’t get to say goodbye.’ Zodwa ‘she died a few years ago and I wasn’t able to attend her funeral.’

s ‘You are not married. But the person you will meet and marry will have a degree and be career-oriented.’Z ‘I’m engaged.’ s ’oh, I see him now.’

s ‘You’re going to be moving into a house early next year.’Z ‘Yeah right! only if we win the lottery.’

s ‘after you get married he will study further. so will you.’Z ‘Yes we have been talking about studying next year. can you tell me what my fiancé’s name is?’s ‘I’m not good with names.’

Zodwa’s verdict ‘I’m in two minds: how could she know about my gran but not see I am getting married? But my instinct tells me sue can “see” things. she wasn’t entirely accurate, but no-one has ever claimed it’s an exact science.’

missingAnne-mari WapenaardisAppeAred: Age 12

lAst seen: Kempton park

into another world. And it’s helped in the Sheldean Human and Michaela Hunter cases.’

Seven-year-old Sheldean went missing in Pretoria last year. Andrew Jordaan later confessed to raping and killing her and led the police to where he had buried her body. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June this year. Michaela was snatched from a maternity home in 1994 and found unharmed two years later.

Jackie says the Missing Persons Bureau contacted her for information about Sheldean’s whereabouts. ‘I gave them a few descriptions of where I “saw” her body. I told them I saw a brick wall and a manhole on a golf course. It turned out some of the information assisted in finding her.’ But the head of the Bureau, Fanie van Deventer, insists that they never contact psychics: ‘They normally call us,’ he says. In this case, he says, someone else may have spoken to Jackie, but ‘there are many brick walls and manholes; that kind of information would not lead to the discovery of a missing person or body. I’m not saying that psychics do not help solve cases but the problem is it’s not an exact science. Only in hindsight can you say the information given by psychics is right.’

But Jackie maintains that the police have sought her out. Once, over 20 police officers came to see her about an old man who had been robbed and murdered in Franschhoek. ‘They are always sceptical and constantly test you to see if you’re for real or not,’ she says. ‘First they give me the victim’s name and ask me to describe his or her appearance and injuries. That’s the first test. Once they’re happy, I describe the

circumstances of the victim’s death. In the

case of the old man, I told them that he

couldn’t breathe before he died and had questioned

why his attackers killed him when it seemed he was having a heart attack.

I could see the surprise on their faces when I told them something I couldn’t possibly

have read in the newspapers. But nine times out of 10, they

won’t come back to tell me my input helped find murderers.’

Ronnie Naidoo, head of communications at the South African Police Service (SAPS), confirms that psychics have been consulted in some cases. The SAPS will pursue all leads that may be beneficial to solving cases, even the controversial invention by Danie Krügel that, Krügel claims, can locate a person’s remains using only a DNA sample. But, Naidoo says,