Thread by @SizweLo

Khotso Sethuntsa was a wealthy African herbalist. Going only by his first name, he was feared and revered by many, even decades after his death. But did he have supernatural powers, or was the source of his wealth his being “the greatest friend of Afrikaners and other Europeans”?

Khotso was born in Lesotho and lived in Kokstad and Lusikisiki in South Africa. He was said to have amassed his wealth through his connection to water spirits and possessing a serpentine mermaid (mamlambo in Xhosa) and river serpent.

By the mid-1960s, Khotso owned 38 properties. He had eighteen houses—distinctive structures with stained glass, blue and white tiles, ornate columns, archways, and statues of lions. People believed the lions would come to life and roar at night.

Khotso drove around the villages in his Cadillacs, flaunting his wealth and giving gifts. At the Kokstad Agricultural Show, he would pay cash for expensive new cars. Tourists, Black and White, rich and poor, local and foreign, journeyed to Lusikisiki to gawk at him.

He bragged: “People from all over the world write to me and ask me to help them solve their problems. Of course, they know that I am the greatest and have helped many a man here and abroad.”

Fort Hare University researcher Felicity Wood described Khotso as an “accomplished liar” with “consummate skill in creating stories—whether drawing on fact, fabrication or a confusing blend of both—and using them to further his own ends”.

In one of Khotso’s stories, he was herding cattle for a Kokstad farmer when the cows strayed, and he was punished. He prophesied that the farmer would suffer for this, and in 1925, a tornado struck the farm and ripped the roof off the house, but neighbouring farms were untouched.

A local tabloid said it was “the cyclone which set Khotso on the road to success”. Mike Lewis, a Kokstad resident, wrote: “Whirlwinds are fairly frequent in that part of the world. But one of them happened to coincide with his dispute with that white farmer.”

“The whirlwind happened to go through that farmer’s house, right through the middle of it...And Khotso boasted about it and made himself famous...because of that. Whether you put that down to his supernatural abilities or not...but certainly, he used [it].”

This story laid the foundation for all the other legends surrounding Khotso and emphasised his tremendous powers. It said he would not be messed with, even as a herdboy. These points were made over and over again in several different stories.

One of Khotso’s adoptive sons told of a woman who stole a pumpkin from his field. When the woman chopped the pumpkin and put it into a pot, the pumpkin spoke: “Why are you chopping me? You didn’t ask my father, I don’t want to be cooked without consulting my father.”

Khotso admonished the thieving woman to come to him whenever she had nothing, and he would help her. He then gave her a magic tickey (three pence coin), which was never used up, and eventually made her rich.

Another tale is about Khotso’s sheep crossing a railway line and getting hit by a train. Khotso complained to the railway manager, who dismissed him. Khotso said that if he were not reimbursed, the train would not go that route again.

So the next time the train travelled along that route, it broke down. Mechanics were called in, but they could not determine the problem. The train was stuck for several days. Only after Khotso was reimbursed for the sheep the train continued on its journey.

On another occasion, Khotso wanted some land, but the area chief blocked him. Khotso was angered, and a date was set for a fight. On the day, the chief brought his army, and Khotso came in his Cadillac, opened the boot, and lions leapt out and ate all the chief’s troops.

Wood points out how in Khotso’s tales, staple features of rural life, sheep and pumpkins, and the ultimate urban status symbol, the Cadillac, give Khotso a platform to display his powers. Khotso’s magical narratives revolve around themes his target audience can relate to.

The first story features a critical element of many of Khotso’s tales: the supernatural serpent; in this case, the snake in the sky—inkanyamba—the tornado spirit. The tornado represents a particularly potent presence in indigenous esoteric belief, and Khotso understood this.

In many tales, Khotso is connected with snakes. He was said to hold many snakes, both real (kept in his house for protection) and magical. But even the real snakes were given the aura of sinister esoterism surrounding him. Nothing about Khotso was allowed to be ordinary.

Throughout southern Africa, keeping snakes is associated with witchcraft. Khotso’s repeated association with snakes reinforced the belief that he was capable of sorcery. The people believed he had particular snakes for different purposes: murder, wealth creation, etc.

The wealth snake was an easy sell for Khotso. Anyone from poverty, illiterate, yet magnificently wealthy had to be involved in ukuthwala, i.e. possessing wealth snakes. The awe and fear of Khotso came from the stories of his control over such creatures.

Khotso’s abilities were frightening because his wealth-giving snakes always demanded blood: that of animals or even humans, particularly family members. The desire for money can dominate lives, so it’s appropriate that mamlambo would feed on human blood, according to Wood.

Khotso’s association with snakes reached epic levels. Even the family’s outside toilet became a fascination and potential menace. One of Khotso’s daughters complained that because the toilet door was kept closed, people assumed it concealed the family’s wealth snake.

Stories of Khotso’s access to Paul Kruger’s missing fortune spread because Khotso fuelled them. His parents worked for the Kruger family, and Khotso narrated numerous tales of this connection and his knowledge of the whereabouts of the “Kruger millions”.

“[They] shared the love and sorrow of the Kruger family,” he declared in an affidavit describing his parents’ relationship with Paul Kruger and his wife, which he submitted to Kruger House in 1956. Kruger became a spiritual object for Khotso, as shown by his sworn testimony:

“Portraits of the President adorn the walls of [Khotso’s] house. He explains this as follows: as the Roman Catholic Church worships the Mother Mary, so we worship President Paul Kruger, whose living spirit is always with us to bring us happiness and prosperity.”

Khotso claimed he was in daily contact with Kruger, and they had a special psychic bond; Kruger gave him financial advice and even horse racing tips. He once appeared in a vision to him and told him to back the winner of the 1954 Durban July.

He wrote in his affidavit: “So [Khotso] maintains that his wealth and affluence can be attributed to the late President Paul Kruger, who is worshipped in a special room and signifies to him all that is worth while in life.”

However, Khotso’s interest in Kruger had a political motivation. “We all know that Khotso of Kokstad has become the greatest friend of Afrikaners and other Europeans,” Khotso declared. It was widely known that he aligned himself with the Apartheid government.

Khotso claimed he gave the Nationalist Party the strength to obtain political power and stay in control. On the eve of the elections in 1948, Hendrik Verwoerd had a secret, late-night meeting with Khotso, who gave him a small bottle of some medicine for good luck.

There is a reasonable suggestion that Khotso worked as a spy for the Broederbond in the Transkei because of his Paul Kruger connection. His daughter recalled how Khotso would visit Verwoerd in the 1960s and how she and other children were taunted at school because of it.

Still, Khotso’s powers deserted him when the Apartheid regime forcefully relocated him from Kokstad to Lusikisiki in 1957. He had built a mansion in Kokstad and did not want to move. But he was coerced, like all Blacks and relegated to an isolated rural backwater.

In conclusion, Felicity Wood writes, “However far-fetched and fraudulent they may appear, stories that invoke the name of Khotso Sethuntsa still have the power to capture people in their spell.” The elderly in the Lusikisiki area are said to be still afraid to speak of him.

Reference: journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.105…
Wood, Felicity. Snakes, Spells Cadillacs and Kruger Millions: Oral Accounts of the Extraordinary Career of Khotso Sethunsa. Vol. 30, no. 1, 1 Nov. 2004, pp. 167–183. Accessed 17 May 2023.