By AUSTIN KALUBA –

Barely two weeks after the shocking murder of an albino woman in Lundazi, another teenage girl of Kapiri Mposhi has been brutally murdered in yet another unnerving sequel of suspected random ritual killings.
The body of the girl was found naked with her tongue and both breasts ripped off.
Enough is enough. We would love the authorities in Zambia to take a leaf from Tanzania where Police recently arrested at least 200 people as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors who were linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders.
Police arrested 225 unlicensed traditional healers and soothsayers during a special operation carried out in several parts of the country.
The crackdown came after President Jakaya Kikwete identified witchdoctors as being behind ritual killings that saw more than 70 albinos attacked or killed.
Some NGOs in Zambia have also identified witchdoctors are being responsible for ritual killings and defilements.
In the quest for a permanent solution to end ritual killings and some defilement, we feel the Government needs to police our brothers and sisters who announce themselves as witchdoctors.
This ilk has been misleading people that they can get whatever they want if they harvest human organs or sleep with under-age girls.
When some colonial masters banned witchdoctors, many people thought foreigners were racists. Now in independent Africa, there is enough evidence that our colleagues in bizarre attire who claim to cure all diseases (including diseases they cannot diagnose) are up to no good.
They are remnants of negative traditional African norms that refuse to die even in the face of modernity that has ushered in a well-defined religion, science and technology.
They go by innocent names like ‘traditional healer’ ‘Sangomas’ ‘medicine men’ ‘Ng’angas’ or even ‘traditional doctors.’
The apt title for these ilk is ‘witchdoctor’ (mark the prefix ‘witch’) though many resist this label preferring to be addressed as ‘healers’ or even ‘doctor.’
It is this very connection to witchcraft marked by the prefix ‘witch’ that blurs their role making it difficult to differentiate them from sorcerers, the latter who cause harm.
Now these agents of the devil are being linked to ritual killings, defilement, instant justice murder and witchcraft.
Their role is now understood as being closer to that of sorcerers whom they claim to fight than to healers.
While the Zambian Government is still dilly dallying on repealing the ambiguous witchcraft act, other countries have already taken action to cage witchdoctors.
Media stories abound of witchdoctors promising people who seek their services with reward if they obtain human organs through ritual killings or sleep with under-age girls.
Apart from being linked with ritual murders, several gender NGOs in Africa have now lumped witchdoctors as being responsible for the escalating number of defilements.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) Executive Director, Pukuta Mwanza, recently said the escalating cases of was partially as a result of witchdoctors.
It is time to act and prevent more people from being killed or defiled.