A 40-year-old street dealer at Harare’s popular Ximex Mall has been hauled before court to answer to criminal nuisance charges after he allegedly claimed to have links to the much talked about buyers of toes who are reportedly clipping off the human organs from volunteers in exchange for large sums of money.
David Kaseke appeared before Harare magistrate Meenal Narotam on Wednesday and was not asked to plead.
He however volunteered a guilty plea which was not recorded.
The magistrate, instead granted him ZW$8 000 bail and remanded him to this Friday for trial.
Kaseke got into trouble after his video claiming he was part of the mysterious syndicate went viral.
In the video, Kaseke claimed to be an agent for the ritualists.
The complainant in the matter is the State.
Allegations are that on May 27 this year at around 1600 hours, “the accused was at his work place and was approached by H-Metro photographer who was following up on the trending story about human toes”.
Kaseke told the photographer that he was the agent of toe buyers and was charging US$200 as agent fee.
He went on to narrate that the small toe could fetch amounts of between US$25 000 and US$30 000 and that the biggest toe could be bought at US$75 000.
The video was posted on many social media platforms.
However, in later interviews, Kaseke claimed he made the statements as jokes while under the influence of alcohol.
The State alleged that the accused acted unlawfully.
The story of human toe trafficking in exchange of a fortune has been trending in the country but there has been no one who has come up so far to volunteer tangible evidence there was such shocking trade in the human organs.
Government, blamed for disastrous policies that have pushed ordinary citizens to desperate levels, has further denied such occurrences.