A court in Zambia has sentenced two men to two years in prison after convicting them of attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema, in what legal experts say is the first high-profile case of its kind in the country.
The convicts, Leonard Phiri, a Zambian, and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, a Mozambican national, were arrested in December 2024 with charms, including a live chameleon, allegedly meant for rituals designed to cause Hichilema’s death. They were prosecuted under Zambia’s colonial-era Witchcraft Act of 1914.
Delivering judgment, Magistrate Fine Mayambu described the pair as “enemies of all Zambians” as well as enemies of the president. The court heard that the two men were recruited by a fugitive former MP to bewitch Hichilema.
During the trial, Phiri reportedly explained how the chameleon’s tail, once pricked and used in a ritual, could cause death within five days. Both defendants claimed they were traditional healers, but the court ruled that they had represented themselves as possessing supernatural powers, which is illegal under Zambian law.
They were sentenced to two years for professing witchcraft and six months for possessing charms, but the sentences will run concurrently, meaning they will serve only two years from the date of their arrest.
Their lawyer, Agrippa Malando, pleaded for leniency, urging the court to impose a fine as they were first-time offenders. The request was rejected. Magistrate Mayambu emphasized that while witchcraft is not scientifically proven, belief in it remains widespread in Zambia and other African countries, and the law exists to protect society from fear and exploitation.
“The question is not whether the accused are actual wizards. It is whether they represented themselves as such—and the evidence clearly shows they did,” he said.
President Hakainde Hichilema, who has previously stated that he does not believe in witchcraft, has not commented on the ruling.
Legal analyst Dickson Jere told the BBC that prosecutions under the Witchcraft Act are rare but significant. He explained that the law was originally designed to protect vulnerable groups—especially elderly women in rural areas—who often faced mob violence after being accused of witchcraft.
The witchcraft case comes amid wider debates in Zambia over superstition and politics. Witchcraft has also been linked to the ongoing dispute over the burial of former President Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa in June 2025. Some citizens allege that the government’s insistence on burying him in Zambia, against his family’s wishes, is motivated by “occult reasons.” The government has strongly denied the claims. Lungu’s body remains in a South African morgue pending resolution of the burial dispute.
