ABSTRACT
Beliefs in wizardry may be relevant in a criminal prosecution in a number of ways. It may be the beliefs of the person accused which are on trial, as where a person is prosecuted for indicating a 'witch' in contravention of section 3 of the Witchcraft Suppression Act. In the case of R v William the accused, who committed a murder in order to obtain human flesh as medicine for gambling, was sentenced to death by the High Court sitting at Umtali. Sometimes the evidence given may be, on the face of it, very much against the interests of the person giving it. In such cases the motive in leading the evidence is usually one personal to the person concerned. The evidence is, in fact, not given for the benefit of the court but for the gallery. These cases are, perhaps, the most interesting of all, although they form a small minority of the cases examined.
