A 76-year-old woman suffering from dementia was beaten to death by a mob that also wanted to burn her after accusing her of being a witch when they saw her roaming the streets of Etwatwa, Benoni, at night.

A video posted on the Etwatwa community social media page shows Busi Letta Maseko lying on the ground, surrounded by people.

In the melee, a person can be heard shouting: “Greetings, Etwatwa community. Here is an elderly woman they are saying they are going to burn. They say she is a witch and was found performing rituals at 3am here.”

Maseko’s grieving family said they were “beyond disheartened” by the community’s actions.

Her cousin Sesana Maseko told Sowetan that due to dementia, the elderly woman would often get lost but would be later found.

She said they had made community aware of her condition in case someone came across her and they would safely return her home or her family would be called to fetch her wherever she was.

“This time she got lost in the wrong place because we’ll never see her alive again. We are beyond disheartened,” Sesana said.

Another cousin, Zakhele, chipped in: “We are not really sure what happened. We assume someone thought she was practising witchcraft when she showed up at their home in the early hours, which is a common myth in a lot of black communities.”

The family said Maseko battled with dementia for years but only got an official diagnosis last year.

“The other time her sister passed away, and we had to travel with her to Delmas [in Mpumalanga] for the funeral. When we got there, she kept asking why we were there.

“When we explained to her again that we were at her sister’s funeral, she became angry and asked why we did not tell her about that before. We started paying close attention to her and be on a 24/7 guard,” Zakhele said.

On Monday, however, she slipped out of the house undetected. When the family became aware of her absence, they started searching for her but to no avail. They later got a call that she had been beaten to death on the streets of Etwatwa in Ekurhuleni.

Welma Geldenhuys, senior social worker at the Association of Dementia and Alzheimer’s of SA (Adasa) Gauteng, said dementia is a serious brain condition that is often misunderstood in many communities.

She said it is linked to an ongoing decline in brain function particularly thinking, memory, and behaviour.

“Dementia has no cure, but it is manageable. Families, caregivers, and communities must be educated about it. The person is not mad or bewitched; they are living with a brain disease,” she said.

Geldenhuys stressed that dementia is not a normal part of ageing, although it commonly affects people over the age of 65.

To raise awareness and prevent stigma or violence, Geldenhuys said Adasa runs community workshops across Gauteng. These include awareness campaigns in clinics, churches, schools, and community centres.