A Form One pupil at a private school in Luveve suburb on Sunday committed suicide by hanging in the presence of her 8-year-old sister.
The girl hanged herself in her bedroom at around 7PM while her younger sister watched helplessly. The motive for the suicide could not be ascertained as the girl did not leave a suicide note nor did she tell anyone if she had any challenges.
When the news crew visited the family house yesterday, there were seven people in the house with the father of the late girl said to have gone to Mpilo Central Hospital to sort out burial papers.
The late pupil’s brother, 19, said the family was pained by the manner in which his sister had died.
“My sister was a very quiet person but she was always smiling. She had gone out and met my father by the corner and asked him where he was going. My father told her he was going to buy some relish.
When she came back to the house, there was my little sister. She took some plastic-like rope and hanged herself from the roof truss in her bedroom. She didn’t leave any message nor did she say anything to my younger sister.
When my younger sister went to tell the people who lodge in the house at the back, it was already too late as she had died. This is painful.”
The deceased’s uncle said they received a call about the incident on Sunday and were shattered by the death of their daughter in such a manner.
“The girl’s mother died last year in January in South Africa, and what pained us was that the father refused for the children to go and bury their mother at our village in Gwamba area in Nkayi.
This suicide is troubling to us and we’re forced to think many things. We suspect that maybe the girl was being abused and just suffered in silence because there’s no other way to explain this painful incident.
I just arrived and I’m waiting for the father to arrive so that we can talk but I’m not happy with the disrespect he has shown to our family.”
Efforts to get a comment from the girl’s father were fruitless as the number which had been provided to this reporter was not going through.
A pastor’s wife from the nearby Baptist Church who did not want to be named said she was pained by the death of the girl. She said they had been supporting the children together with neighbours in the area after both parents left the children for South Africa.
“I’m pained by this and I wish she could wake up but I know it can’t happen. She was a member of our church but didn’t attended church on Sunday after a relative visited them.
In life iminwe ayilingani but we supported them wherever we could. The father was working hard to provide for them but it was difficult.
The children stayed for a long time by themselves when their parents were in South Africa and the father only returned some time last year and we were assisting them.”
She said the girl was a bright child who would greet people and offer to do chores whenever the need arose.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the suicide adding that police were carrying out investigations.
