The deadly Rakatanyane swamps

Rakatanyane swamps are a no-go area, according to Thamaga residents, especially elders. This is where 16 year-old Ofentse Rasedie drowned last Saturday morning. Thamaga Police Station Commander Superintendent Moses Kwarare said the boy slipped and drowned while being baptised by a pastor of a local church called Calvary Apostolic Church. Villagers are angry that the pastor sent Lucky to baptise the deceased at the swamps ‘fully aware that there is a big snake inside and that the swamps had not been having water for the past two years save the one kept by the snake.’ A resident said that a big snake inhabits the Rakatanyane swamp and that one must pray hard before coming there. “Before people come here, they should spend weeks praying and asking for permission from the snake to come and baptise. You don’t just come. Some years ago, a pastor died when he had come to baptise his church members here. “Unfortunately, just when he entered trying to ask for permission from the snake, he died right away,” she said, adding that churches should also remember that government has long asked them to stop baptising people in streams and swamps. The Midweek Sun learns that the man who baptised Rasedie, known only as Lucky, is not a pastor and had just come for an all-night prayer service like any other visitor, according to the church Bishop Nicholas Rakodu. Lucky is currently in police custody. However, the host Pastor Dafida Masina and his family see Lucky as a pastor and had even given him platform to prophesy that Rasedie should be baptised alone even though the baptism had been cancelled. The Rasedie family and the village elders believe that Pastor Dafida should be arrested too because he hosted Lucky and authorised him to baptise Rasedie. A friend of the deceased Bofelo Entaile said he was saddened that even when Rasedie said he did not want to be baptised at Rakatanyane, the pastor and his visitor went on and ignored him and baptised him there. “He knew that the place is dangerous hence he asked to be baptised at Mahatelo streams but they chose to ignore him,” he said. At the swamps there is a rock written Dafida with three crosses painted on the sides. Villagers say it is where the pastor usually goes to perform his church rituals. The swamps are right in front of his yard. “He usually comes here at night and burns his incenses,” said a villager. Pastor Masina could not respond to our questions. His girlfriend however said the last time they baptised at Rakatanyane swamps was two years back and that they had been baptising at Mahatelo streams.