LUSAKA, Zambia – A Zambian court has sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour after convicting them of attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema. The case has drawn international headlines and captured national attention, exposing deep tensions between traditional beliefs, a colonial-era legal framework, and the realities of contemporary politics. While the charges stem from local understandings of witchcraft, unrelated to Wicca or other modern Neopagan spiritual practices, the conviction raises pressing questions about how a modern legal system can be hijacked to prosecute cases rooted in magical practices and political intrigue.
Editorial Note: In this context, we use lowercase “witchcraft” to distinguish traditional or cultural practices from “Witchcraft,” as covered in The Wild Hunt when referring to modern Pagan and related spiritual traditions.
Magistrate Fine Mayambu handed down the sentences after concluding that Leonard Phiri, a village chief, and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, a Mozambican national, had “professed” witchcraft and possessed charms intended to cause death. The men were arrested in December 2024 after hotel staff reported hearing strange noises. Police said officers found a live chameleon in a bottle, along with a red cloth, an unidentified white powder, an animal’s tail, and other items the prosecution described as ritual paraphernalia.
Flag of Zambia [Public Domain]
“The motive of the crime was to kill the head of state,” Magistrate Mayambu said in his ruling, adding that the convicts “were not only enemies of the head of state but all Zambians.” The court convicted the pair on two counts under the Witchcraft Act and on a separate count for possessing charms; six-month terms for the latter were ordered to run concurrently with the two-year sentences, meaning each will serve two years from the date of their arrest.
Prosecutors alleged the men had been hired by a relative of former lawmaker Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda — who is reportedly facing unrelated criminal charges — to carry out the curse. In court, one of the accused reportedly described how a chameleon’s tail, once pricked and used in a ritual, would allegedly cause death within five days. Defence lawyer Agrippa Malando urged leniency, noting his clients were first-time offenders and asking the court to impose fines instead of prison terms; the plea was rejected.
The case is the first in Zambia’s recent history to reach the magistrates’ court on charges of attempting to bewitch a sitting president, and it has provoked wide interest and heated debate. For many Zambians, belief in supernatural forces remains a part of daily life: a 2018 study by the Zambia Law Development Commission found a large majority held beliefs in witchcraft.
President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Public Domain]
Magistrate Mayambu acknowledged that belief in witchcraft persists but said the law exists to protect society from fear and harm caused by those who claim to wield such powers. “The question is not whether the accused are wizards or actually possess supernatural powers. It is whether they represented themselves as such, and the evidence clearly shows they did,” he said.
Critics argue the trial also exposes fraught political dynamics ahead of next year’s national elections. Human rights groups and commentators have accused President Hichilema’s administration of increasing intolerance toward dissent — citing the harassment of journalists and opposition figures — and some see the prosecution as part of a wider pattern of using courts and institutions to weaken political rivals. Sishuwa Sishuwa, a South African academic, has argued that Hichilema’s government has been appointing allies to key bodies and reshaping rules in ways that favor incumbency. President Hichilema, who has said publicly that he does not personally believe in witchcraft, has not commented directly on the case.
The legal backbone of the prosecution is the Witchcraft Act, a British colonial-era statute passed in 1914 that criminalizes the pretence of supernatural powers intended to cause fear, annoyance or injury. Legal observers note prosecutions under the act are uncommon, and its continued use has provoked calls for reform.
“I hate that colonial piece of legislation that attempts to outlaw a practice that it does not understand,” said Gankhanani Moyo, a cultural heritage lecturer at the University of Zambia, arguing the law fails to account for the nuances of traditional spiritual practices.
The trial also sits alongside other national controversies that have inflamed public passions. The dispute over the repatriation and burial of Hichilema’s predecessor, Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa in June, has spawned rumors and conspiracy theories, including suggestions that occult motives underlie decisions about the body’s return. The government has denied such claims, but the controversy has added to the atmosphere of suspicion.
The case raises practical and moral questions about how a modern legal system should handle claims rooted in customary belief. The successful prosecution of this case is a playbook for using the rare enforcement of a dormant statute to create a politically charged spectacle that captivates the public while stoking fears of occult practices. It all but guarantees that debates over law, belief, and power will continue.
“Personally, I feel people should be punished for planning to cause harm to someone,” said Wisdom Kaunda, a teacher following the trial, to the Associated Press earlier this year. “But it is so difficult to prove witchcraft in the courts of law.” As it turns out, that sober warning seems to have been ignored.
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