Thread by @ikentanzi_

My second worst day ever was when my boss relieved me of all my duties as the store.
He was moving the store to Gauteng now that Mandela was set free.
“The business will be good that side.” He justified himself.
I was now jobless, I was a nobody. My life was ruined!!!

For more than 5 years, I remained at my mother’s mercy.She was now the sole provider again.Bheki & Vusi got swallowed by the treacherous city of Johannesburg.
Hope became a foreign concept in my family.Dolly was still vanishing with men & returning with bruises all over her face

My father was still sloshing himself till his bladder lost control.
I was still jobless, everywhere I went they either wanted matric papers or bribe money which I both didn’t have. That is when Poverty had us by the neck. I think this is what led to my mother’s stroke.

Her entire left side was left paralyzed. Her speech was no longer intelligible. She couldn’t bath herself, or take herself to the bathroom. You’d think that Dolly would care to nurse her own mother but, she couldn’t care whether she was alive or not.
I had to step in.

Do you have any idea how shameful it was to change your mother’s nappies?!
With each wipe, I felt as though I was erasing my own manhood & pride. Her two favorite sons had deserted her, she was now left with the one she claimed to be lazy for failing to get a job or a wife.

Without her going to the market to sell sweet potatoes, our home grew frail and sister Famine was threatening to force her way through our doors.

After months of her not recovering, I started looking for a woman dumb enough to get herself into the poverty we were living under.

I managed to find one.
Phumelele was her name.
she was the least pretty of all the girls who had signed their names onto my sheets. This didn’t bother me, I was just looking for someone who’d take care of my mother while I continued with my job hunting.

Luck was finally upon me!
I was hired as a packer at a traditional medicine pharmacy near the long distance taxi rank. I won’t lie and say the pay was the best, but it was enough to keep my family fed. Phumelele also fell pregnant & gave birth to Sizwe, my heir.

I finally felt like a man again.
I was a father, and the breadwinner at my house.
My mother’s condition was slowly becoming better after I started bringing her some herbs from the traditional medicine pharmacy.
I was paying homage to my name, Thembeni, which means their hope.

One day when I came back late from work I found a grey Mazda 3, parked right at the center of the yard.

I could hear laughter breaking out from the inside as I got closer. Who could it be? I asked myself. I walked inside our kitchen & my heart was suddenly filled with rage.

It was Vusi.
He was casually cracking jokes as if he hadn’t abandoned us for almost a decade.

My parents were hysterical as though they were high on marijuana. Phumelele is serving everybody dinner that I obviously didn’t buy. There’s seven colors on all the plates.

Before I knew it I had punched him on his face and kicked the colorful plate in his hand to the floor.

What happened after that was absolute mayhem!
He also threw a punch at me, but I blocked it & cracked his lips Jacob Matlala style!

Sizwe started crying from another room.

My Father tried separating us but all that alcohol in his bones surrendered him weak to my push.

My mother is shouting for us to stop, luckily for her she’s stuck on that sofa, otherwise she would’ve followed her husband to the floor, had she tried stopping me.

Phumelele knows not to get involved. She knows how deadly my hand is.

The two bulls in the room battle it out but one’s horns proved to be more powerful than the other.
“Aibo! What’s happening? Themba!” Someone screams. *I know that voice*...
“Mpume, what are you doing here?”

“ I’m with Vusi, why are you two fighting? Stop what you’re doing! You will wake up the kids!” She said as she made herself a barrier separating me & my bleeding bastard of a brother.

“Kids?”

“Yeah! Me and Mpume have been together for a while now” Vusi is trying to spite me.

I cannot hide the disgust on my face!
How could she?!
My own brother?!

Everything in the room is stand still. It’s only Sizwe’s wailing that’s bringing the tension in the room down. Phumelele grabs Sizwe from my mother’s arms & dashed outside. She knows how I feel about Mpume

Mpume takes Vusi to another room. My father is still on the floor, too drunk to pick himself up.

I also decide to storm out the main house. I find Phumelele trying to calm Sizwe down at my 2 roomed house.
“Baba, uyaphi?” She asked me as I grabbed my jacket from the wodrobe

I give her one look and she knows not to repeat that question again. I slammed the door right behind me & went to Engwane Tarven to do what my father does best.

No matter the amount of alcohol reigning over me, I couldn’t stop thinking about the car that Vusi was now driving.

How did he do it?
He probably has a well paying job that side.
Mpume mentioned them having kids, how many do they have?
What a whore!
Jumping from one brother to the next!
Why didn’t they come back for such a long time?
Why are they only coming back now?...

I went home with a lot of resentment that night.

In the morning I was woken up by the blasting sound of Mafikizolo’s ndihamba nawe.I peep through the window & see my father washing Vusi’s car
I must be dreaming!
That man never does anything!
He doesn’t even wipe his own ass!

I step outside & see Vusi sitting on the driver’s seat. He’s the one disturbing me from my sleep. I walk up to them & greet. I don’t know why I did it,it must’ve been the master thinker that had been born in me, the night before.
“Hhey, bafo!” Vusi greets back. He’s smiling even

He must be ontop of something.
I decide to play along in his game of pretense and we ended talking about the fight we had the night before. My father tried to get us to apologize to one another,but we both decided it was unnecessary
“It’s what brother do Dad, we fight” said Vusi

Two little girls come out chasing each other from the main house. They are a spitting image of my mother! They must be Vusi’s kids.
They are quarreling about something.
“You see,siblings never get along” says Vusi kiddingly.We all laugh & head inside the main house for breakfast

Phumelele has Sizwe on her back. She’s never been this ugly!
I’m actually ashamed to even refer to her as my girlfriend. She is nothing when compared to Mpume, whom with that long hair looks like a Goddess that uNomkhubulwane would be jealous of.

“Here’s a seat for you baba”

Phumelele brings me a chair.

After this,I’ll have to tell her to stop calling me Baba,I’m not her father!

Vusi grabs her own chair,Mpume brings us the food & for the first time I ever,I had fish fingers.
I wiped the plate clean & even asked for more.Mpume’s still a great cook

While I was enjoying the second round of the food prepared by my brother’s whore, there’s a knock at the door.
People have no manners hey? Visiting so early in the morning?! Now we’ll have to share whatever leftovers we have with them.

“Come in” My mother calls out

It’s a boy from the village.
He’s out of breath.
He kneels down by the door,almost scared to come in,then delivers the message that had Vusi &Mpume dashing outside.Some boys from the village had found Dolly unconscious in the bush
I was hoping she was dead,for her more than mine

She was living a miserable life.
It needed to end!

They asked the boy to lead them to where Dolly’s body was,I remained behind to obviously watch over our home while they were gone.30 mins later they barged in carrying Dolly’s bloody body. My mother almost had her second stroke

She thought her useless daughter had been Murdered.
I bet she wouldn’t have had the same reaction had it been me.

Vusi stripped her naked while Mpume brought in a first aid kit. Thats how I found out about their professions.
Mpume was a nurse.
Vusi was a paramedic.

Watching both of them work together to revive Dolly brought out the Devil in me.
I wanted what they had!
I deserved it!
I was the smart one in the family!

My mother limped to the bed that Dolly is being treated in & started wiping her wounds with salt water that my father made

Phumelele is with the kids in the kitchen, Mpume reckoned that the kids shouldn’t see this, then appointed my girlfriend as a babysitter for my mother’s reincarnates.

I stand still by the door watching them hovering over the now coughing Dolly.
I don’t know what to do.

By Sunday Morning, Dolly could walk by herself again.

Although she’s swollen as a pregnant pig, she’s showing signs of making it through yet another violent attack from one of her men.

Vusi was so angry about the situation such that he took Dolly to stay with them in Gauteng

That’s is how Vusi gained his fame throughout the village.He found Dolly a job & she came back looking like a doll,all thanks to Mpume.I know it was her!

Dolly had apparently moved into her own place too.She was glowing& happier than ever. My parents wouldn’t stop praising Vusi

From there he started collecting kids who had made it through high school but couldn’t further their studies or get jobs.He successfully get all of them jobs, everyone started to worship him & i was treated like a nobody that I felt I was.That’s when I decided enough was enough!

I sat down & planned how I was going to overthrow him.There were quiet a lot of options to choose from, the easiest one would’ve been for me to just send him to his ancestors. But the truth is that he is my brother, as much as hate him,I’d never wish death upon him,just poverty.

If I wanted him dead I’d go to straight to Mhlabuyalingana to strike him dead with lightning or feed him poison in his sleep.

I know you don’t know this, but there’s nothing as easy as taking someone’s life. If one really wills it, it can be done.

I also could’ve hit him with a severe illness like a stroke. One that is so severe he becomes a pumpkin...
but, nah, that would just keep Mpume closer to him.

I mean, I didn’t do all of this just for her, but she’s definitely somewhere in the equation.

Working in a place where people would come looking for all kinds of muthi came at an advantage. It was as if this was God’s big plan all along, to humble my brother by force & by fire.We didnt sell any harmful muthi at the pharmacy but some of my colleagues were experts the field

That is how I came upon the decision of stripping Vusi clean of all the good fortune coming his way & have it for myself. I did my research about the possibility of achieving this & I was told of ukuphehla amanzi amnyama, a deadly ritual that’s considered third degree witchcraft.

This ritual is used to either steal another person’s ancestor(s) or spiritual guides and have them for yourself or to hijack all their good fortune for yourself. How this is achieved is by having one’s ancestor(s) turn their backs on the person you’re stealing them from.

This can only be done through blood connections. Meaning only someone from your family can phahla amanzi amnyama for you or turn your ancestor’s backs away from you. When this is done, you’d have lots of badlucks & be disliked by people you don’t even know.

You go in an interview & the person who’s interviewing you gets irritated by every little thing you do. Sometimes you get shortlisted but your CV vanishes or the call doesn’t come through when they’re tryna get ahold of you. Badlucks would manifest in many ways.

I knew that this would declare a stain upon my soul. I was also well aware that my ancestors could possibly deny me in the after life but I do not regret what I did.

I made contact with two female witches from the neighboring villages & they helped me pro bono

They were more excited about bringing dethroning someone from a throne of success. That’s the problem with female witches. They bewitch people but stand nothing to gain. They are usually the poorest among the poorest & practice the dark arts just to boost their egos.

Warlocks are usually rich because they chase wealth more than anything. I myself am like them, I don’t see a point of practicing the dark arts without gaining any monetary value.

Hence I now hang around ministers & executive directors who keep my pockets running deep.

I then decided to quit at work so that Vusi could also take me under his wing. Thats why they say keep your enemies closer, and your family closer.

Like Jesus over troubled waters, he came running to my rescue. Before going to Gauteng I prepared for my victory..

Waking up at night&covering myself in ash was never easy at first,but as time went by,I got used to it.The ladies would come pick me up on their baboons & we’d ride our way into the night

It takes real courage for one to even attempt riding on a beast,never mind riding backwards

I recieved ritual cuts from the ladies as gift to conquering the task of wiping all my siblings out of our ancestor’s eyes.

I won’t lie, I was scared.

There were a lot of risks involved. Death was even promised to me, but at this point, it was too late to go back.

Before deciding which ancestor to call forth, I was to travel into the land of the dead to personally see all the ancestors that were responsible for all that was good in our family.

Yes,there are different kinds of ancestors....

Some are good, some are unclean, especially those who died witches, murders & tricksters. They usually need to be purified so that they could be reunited with the good ones who exist in light, ekukhanyeni.

These were the ones that I wanted. The ones that I got.

I conjured all the ancestors that I needed. Vusi’s ancestor was rather hard to hijack. She was the great grandmother of my paternal grandmother.
She must’ve been very fond of Vusi because she refused to leave his sight. She remained kneeling, in a trance state connected to Vusi.

One of the ladies reckoned she was trying to communicate with Vusi via a dream... perhaps warn him of the plans I had for him.
That is why we decided to shut her up for good by splitting her from the family, both living & dead. This way she wouldn’t spoil our plans.

I then borrowed some boys from one of the ladies, uMaskhakhane. They travelled with me to Vusi’s house & started following him to work as I had instructed them. They studied him for a full month, learning his strengths & weaknesses. His plans & goals. Everything!

When they left for work, and the kids to school, I cut all their pillows open & put inside them concoctions & hair from a rhino’s tail to make them lose their libido and inspire fights.

They weren’t really the praying type so things were a whole lot easier for me.

The little girls used to say the Our Father, prayer when I first got there, but I put a stop to it by asking the boys to make them fall asleep each time the older one insisted that they pray

There is nothing as strong as a child’s prayer. It summons the most powerful of angels..

They have the purest of hearts & so their souls are receptive to energy.

When Vusi & Mpume started having silly little fights in my presence, I reprimanded them just so they’d render me harmless.

I told y’all I was the smartest in my family... do you see it now ?

I hated the fact that despite all my means to split the two love birds apart, they’d always find a way to reconcile.
There was one more thing for me to do, I had to somehow get Vusi to cheat & be caught...well,I may have went overboard with this one, but it really did the trick!

The boys reported to me that there was a lady called Carol from Vusi’s work place whom had a crush on Vusi. She was forever throwing herself on him but he wouldn’t budge. Shem, he did love Mpume yena,but that’s all history now.

Anyway, I had to undo the pillows again...

I had to give them back their libido but keep the little bottles that made both of them irritable when in each other’s presence.This way they’d want to have sex, just not with each other.

The boys wanted Mpume for themselves & I permitted them to do whatever they liked with her

There was only 1 condition though, I instructed them to have spiritual sex with Vusi but they were to mask themselves as Carol from Vusi’s workplace.Perhaps this would push Vusi into mixing business with pleasure

I hate to brag,but it worked!
He started flirting back at carol..

After having so many sex dreamns about Carol, he was now attracted to her more than ever!

One fateful night, Vusi had his way with her on the ambulance bed. He had switched his day shifts to night shift with the intention of avoiding Mpume & carrying out his infidelity at night.

Mpume grew hungry when Vusi was not home, but as soon as he got home, she’d wish he’d go back to where he came from.

Lady Luck was obviously on her side, because I helped her achieve that. Vusi suddenly stopped coming home after Maskhakhane sent me something to chase Vusi away.

A few Swaziland coins dipped in a rabbit’s blood, some special herbs and incantations were enough to get the job done.

Where am I doing all of this? Well in their backyard of course. I’d put them all on sleep mode, then get out to take care of business.

When Vusi started not coming back home, Mpume fell into depression. The children could also sense the energy around the house. They were no longer as cheerful,young & free. They were always tired,like their mother.

I won’t lie, at this point I wanted to stop, but it was too late

I had renounced my conscience& chose the path of night the day I recieved the cuts that allow me to see into spirit

Mpume soon fell into alcohol abuse when bills started rolling in.Her salary alone couldn’t keep everything functioning as it was before Vusi got a flat with Carol.

Mpume used to cry herself to sleep every night and the boys would still show her no mercy.
They had sex with her every night, she thought they were just sex dreams, but truth is there was much more to it than that.

I got a job as manager at KFC & left to live by myself.

I wasn’t too far way from them though, I still wanted easy access to them.

One day when I was at work,I got a call from Vusi,he was crying.I was prepared for the worst, & it was the worst indeed!
One of his daughters had been hit by a car,he said she didn’t survive the accident

I was more disturbed by how my heart was at peace even after hearing such terrible news.Could it be that she got into that accident cause they had no ancestors watching over them?cause I took all the ancestors for my own benefit? Surely that’s it.
I still didn’t feel any remorse

After the funeral in KZN, Vusi’s relationship with Mpume was as good as dead. They blamed each other for her death instead of comforting each other... atleast didn’t have anything to do with that.
Mpume proved herself fit to be a Khanyile Wife,alcohol became her best friend.

That is how she got fired at work. The boys kept tags on her & they told me that she’d go to work even when she was as drunk as a skunk. Sometimes she wouldn’t even go to work at all.
Vusi was now permanently staying with the pregnant Carol.Too bad that baby also didn’t make it

It was still born,the first still born in our family. Carol was introduced to the rest of our family behind Mpume’s back as she was now known as the unemployed makoti that did nothing but eat Vusi’s money
Only if the knew that Carol was the real gold digger here.

Anyway, Vusi stopped paying for the bond to the house & the bank did what it does best in such cases. Mpume was shipped to KZN, along with her one and only daughter.

Vusi was crazy about Carol! He stayed with her despite her history of being Will every guy at Vusi’s workplace.

I don’t know what could’ve happened at his work for him to also get fired, but In just a few weeks after Mpume was shipped to KZN, Vusi soon followed her.

Carol did what the Carols of this world do best.She left him for another guy. One that had a job.
Vusi was left heartbroken

I didn’t have to do much to them after this, although I do believe my two friends in witchcraft completed the job when Vusi went back to KZN.

He tried sorting out things with Mpume but the odds were already against him. Mpume had already filed for divorce.

He signed the papers and their so called holy-marital-knot was undone. Mpume went back to stay in her maiden home and Vusimuzi started heavily drinking. Life father like son!

When I went back to KZN during the holidays I found him thin as a toothpick. His skin dark as coal...

“Mfwethu, usaya nje kodwa emanzini?” I said to him as he entered the room. His scent was as bad as his halitosis.The ladies really did finish him off. He was as worthless as my father whom I had also discovered he had been bewitched by my uncle. Same as I did to my brother, Vusi.

That ladies and gentlemen is how I turned my brother into a village madman. The tales of him being a paramedic still followed him, but no one could ever believe that someone like him, was a trained paramedic.

I on the other hand, had a silver tray to my table.

I started working for the City’s Mayoral office. First as a driver for the mayors deligates, then for him. He only needed a few pushes for him to elevate me to a whole new level of wealth.

I was always by his side. He trusted me with his life. I ruled over him.

Now I am as rich as Croesus. Although what I had done wiped my family clean... my heart still feels no remorse for them. My mother’s death was as sudden as a sneeze. One minute she was alive and well, the next we were singing amagugu for her. My dad soon followed after.

It’s like they were calling each other from the otherside.

Vusi is still alive, I told y’all I’d never kill him. I need him.

I can’t say the same about Dolly though. She had gone for a consultation with a prophetess & found out that someone among us siblings, was a witch.

I couldn’t risk her finding out it was me. So I silenced her for good. I told y’all that taking someone’s like is as easy as pie. After so many years of being a warlock, I can do it with my eyes closed.

As for Vusi, so long as I breathe. He shall never be sent free.

We all know of someone from our neighborhoods who’s said to have either been rich, or exceptionally smart at school but when you look at them now, they are as worthless as Vusimuzi’s life. Some are madmen, some are drunkards but, every place needs people like them...

People who take up all the badlucks &become a charger for good fortune to the powerful likes of me

I am a warlock &I am proud of it. It’s the best decision I’ve ever taken in my life.I have power and wealth. I’m well connected,no one could even think that I practice witchcraft

The suits I wear cover me well. The cars I drive and the people in my cirlce sets me apart from everyone who might not have matric papers.

Sizwe goes to the best school in the country. Phumelele reigns by my side. She too, has joined the dark arts. We were made for each other!

Okay. That’s it. That’s all I had to say. It’s almost midnight now, I must head out for a couple of hours, there’s someone I have to sort out.

You are all dismissed. C’mon, go now!

The end.

Thank y’all so much for reading until the end. I hope y’all enjoyed it. Remember to retweet this thread so it can reach the right people.🙏🏽

Next thread coming soon.

Yours in threading,
Ike Ntanzi