University student kills himself after failing exams

A second-year politics and public management student at Midlands State University died when he allegedly committed suicide by taking some poison when he discovered he had failed last semester’s examinations.

The student has been identified as Benjamin Mukwaira. MSU acting public relations director Ms Snikiwe Tirivanhu confirmed the incident, which occurred on Wednesday night in Senga high-density suburb where Mukwaira was staying.

Ms Tirivanhu, however, refuted reports that the student committed suicide but “died in his sleep” in his rented room.

“We can confirm the death, and are quite saddened by the passing on of one of our students, Benjamin Mukwaira, in his sleep last night (Wednesday night).

“Benjamin was a second level second semester student in the Department of Politics and Public Management, under the Faculty of Social Sciences. While the cause of death has not been established and can only be established after a post-mortem, his death is not as a result of a suicide,” said Ms Tirivanhu.

One of the students who was sharing a room with Mukwaira, however, said he could have taken his life by taking some poison after he was shocked to learn that he failed most of his last semester examinations and was supposed to repeat the level.

“Mukwaira had not been able to access his last semester results because the institution had suppressed them owing to some fee arrears. He continued with his studies and was supposed to go for industrial attachment by the end of this semester and his parents had just cleared the arrears when he was shocked to learn that he had failed some of the modules, which means he was supposed to repeat that level,” said one of the students.

He said the shocked Mukwaira spent the whole of Wednesday looking miserable after learning of the results.

“We tried to console him until late at night but we could see from the way he looked that the development had greatly disturbed him as he was saying his parents would not accept it.

“We were then shocked on Thursday morning when we woke up and found that Mukwaira was lying motionless in his blankets.

“This was when we reported the matter to our landlord who in turn reported the matter to the police,” he said.

Repeated efforts to get a comment from acting police spokesperson for Midlands Sergeant Thandiwe Khumalo were fruitless yesterday.