The Extraordinary Khotso

Khotso Sethuntsa, the near-legendary millionaire medicine man, or inyanga, was believed to be a worker of powerful and dangerous magic. Khotso was renowned and feared throughout South Africa and beyond, even after his death in 1972. He created a fabulous, eccentric kingdom around himself. He has been surrounded by mystery: the origins of his fortune, and the extent of his powers, were shrouded in secrecy.

This book takes us into the world of one of southern Africa’s best-known herbalists. Khotso was famed, especially, as a seller of ibangalala, a herbal remedy for sexual potency, and ukuthwala, a terrifying procedure for acquiring long-term wealth. Also, he claimed to be in spiritual contact with Paul Kruger, hinting that his fortune derived from the long-lost Kruger millions. It has also been said that leading Afrikaner nationalist politicians, including H.F. Verwoerd and J.G. Strijdom, sought Khotso out for his medicines for political power.

Some believed that Khotso had entered into an occult pact with the mamlambo, the seductive mermaid woman who grants wealth at a terrible price. It is rumoured that the tragic twists and turns in his life sprung from this. Yet, as one of his many wives said, he was, too, “a lively, joking man who loved money, sex and laughter.”

This book unravels many of the mysteries surrounding Khotso Sethuntsa. It explores his unique empire and tracks his extraordinary career. This is the story of an enigmatic figure in South Africa’s past, a man who was believed to control access to a world of mystery and magic. Told in rich detail and packed with incident, it includes the voices of an impressive range of men's and women's lives he touched.

Khotso is a well-known figure who has been left out of the history books. This book thus recovers a section of South African history that is in danger of being lost, as well as telling a dramatic, gripping tale full of astonishing twists and turns that intertwines both comedy and tragedy.