Sangomas battle identity theft as their pictures are stolen to sell herbs and muti

Traditional healers are frustrated by ongoing identity theft as their faces are used on traditional medicine, posters, websites and even fake social media accounts. 

uMakhosi Nomabutho, who was born Honey Makwakwa, was surprised to learn in September last year that her picture, which was taken and published by the Sowetan, had made it onto bottles of some herbal liquid medicine sold at several stores in Johannesburg.

Nomabutho, who is based in Mpumalanga and runs the Sangoma Society, said she followed this up and was led to Rani’s Herbalist in Lenasia. She discovered there are eight stores around Johannesburg, with a new one recently opened in Soweto.

As she walked in, she found scores of bottles with green liquid neatly lined up on a shelf with her face on them. 

“This green liquid is apparently meant to fortify the home. It looks like it is a mixture of water, some oil and glitter. I told my lawyer about this and went to the store to get evidence. I asked to see the manager but was told he was not in. I decided to take videos of the products instead and send them to my lawyer.”

Shortly afterwards, she went to a shopping centre in the area and came across another Rani’s Herbalist store. Here she was provided with information on the company’s CEO, CFO and marketing director.

Nomabutho has now taken legal action against them after learning that she would first have to register her brand for copyright purposes. After her legal team tried to contact Rani’s Herbalist, she hasn’t heard a word.

Rani’s Herbalist also failed to respond to questions sent by TimesLIVE Premium.

“Instead, they decided to follow me on TikTok, which I found weird, but I haven’t heard anything from them.”

Another Rani’s store was recently opened in Diepkloof, Soweto, where she was made aware by the Izwelonke Traditional Healers Forum that her face was on one of the products.

“Diepkloof is where I initiated and when these healers go to the shops, they find my face so it seems I am selling these things that are not even [confirmed to be] safe,” she said.

But it didn’t end there. She found similar products on Facebook’s shopping platform, Marketplace, as well as websites that promote bringing back lost lovers and potions to win the lottery.

“These people are outside our practices and they are just looking at an opportunity that presents itself in that context,” she said.

Gogo Simenjalo, formerly known as Celuxolo Stewart, had to take a break from social media for a couple of years due to her identity being stolen to create numerous social media accounts.

Instead, the culprits would use fake names such as ‘Mama Mathambo’, ‘Gogo Mahlalentabeni’, she told TimesLIVE Premium.

“I constantly receive messages from followers and friends about my face being used. Flyers have also been printed and put up in the streets for people to call a healer ... I left Facebook for three years. I just recently went back because I needed to use the marketplace. These people don’t use my name but my images, posts and video clips. I now keep my social media friends to a minimum and I don’t follow many people. I block the slightest whiff of [disingenuity].”

Unlike Nomabutho, Simenjalo, who is based in Johannesburg, said taking legal action would be a costly, tedious and pointless exercise as she would have to report and search for every single bogus social media account.

In the past, she would directly confront the perpetrators behind the fake accounts but found it challenging.

“These scammers have no real faces so the Popi Act remains quite useless in these instances. There is nobody to take legal action against if it is not a physical product being offered at a physical address. Legal action also implies costs in money and time — both scarce resources. It also entails further stress in merely having to deal with the police and the justice system,” she said.