Murder of Masego Kgomo

Masego Kgomo, born around 1999, was a South African girl who went missing near her home in Soshanguve, a township north of Pretoria, on 31 December 2009. According to Wikipedia, she was murdered so that her body parts could be used to provide material for rituals performed by a sangoma (a traditional healer/diviner). Her killing generated public calls for sangomas to stop the practice of using human flesh in rituals.

In the aftermath of her disappearance, five people were initially charged in connection with her kidnapping and murder. Police were led to the location of Kgomo's body in Soshanguve in the early hours of 9 January 2010 after a suspect provided information.

The case proceeded through the Pretoria High Court, where Judge Billy Mothle presided. On 28 November 2011, the court found Brian Mangwale, aged 30 at the time, guilty of Kgomo's murder and kidnapping. Mangwale was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder charge and a further six years imprisonment for the kidnapping charge.

The case drew attention in South Africa to so-called "muti killings," in which body parts are taken for use in traditional medicine or ritual practices, and Kgomo's death was cited in public discourse urging an end to such practices involving children.

This dossier is based on the Wikipedia article covering the case, which itself references contemporaneous news coverage from South African outlets iol.co.za and timeslive.co.za regarding the circumstances of her death and public reaction calling for an end to killing children for muti. Those two articles are included here as corroborating references cited by the Wikipedia source, though their specific text was not available for direct quotation or independent fact extraction in this dossier.