Form One Pupil Commits Suicide In Front Of Eight-year-old Sister
In a heart-wrenching incident that has sent shockwaves through the community, a Form One pupil at a private school in Luveve suburb, Bulawayo, tragically took her own life on Sunday evening. The young girl was found hanging in her bedroom, with her 8-year-old sister as the only witness to the tragic event.
According to the girl’s 19-year-old brother, who spoke exclusively to The Chronicle, there was no indication that she was struggling with any challenges, and she did not leave a suicide note.
“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 arrived at the house, there was my little sister. She took some plastic-like rope and hung 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 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 the Gwamba area in Nkayi. This suicide is troubling to us, and we’re forced to think about 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.”
The tragic incident has left the community reeling, with neighbours and members of the nearby Baptist Church, where the girl was a member, coming together to support the family. Speaking to The Chronicle, a pastor’s wife who wished to remain anonymous said,
“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 attend 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 sometime last year, and we were assisting them.”
Confirming the tragic incident, Bulawayo Provincial ZRP spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said investigations into the case are ongoing.