Final year student hangs self

By Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu

A Gwanda Polytechnic College student was found hanging from a tree outside his parents’ homestead in Mangwe District in a suspected case of suicide.

Gracious Mkandla from Izimnyama area left a suicide note behind but did not state why he decided to end his life.

Chief Wasi confirmed the incident which occurred in Mapulula 1 Village on Saturday evening.

He said Mkandla’s siblings aged nine and 12 years found their brother’s body hanging from a tree which is behind their homestead on Sunday morning.

Mkandla was in his last year at college, but it could not be established immediately what he was studying.

“There is an incident of a man who hanged himself outside his parents’ homestead which is within my area. The man was a student at Gwanda Polytechnic College and he had just come home to visit for the weekend.

“A day later he was found hanging from a tree which is in a bushy area behind the homestead. The incident has left the community shocked. What puzzles us the most is why he chose to leave school to die at home,” he said.

Izimnyama Ward councillor, Mrs Sakhile Ndebele said a suicide note was found in Mkandla’s pocket.

“In the note which Mkandla left behind, he said people shouldn’t bother finding the cause of his death as he had committed suicide. He also said his family shouldn’t bother looking for answers either. He said that he had died the way he did as he saw it fit for him to leave this earth in that manner,” said Mrs Ndebele.

She said Mkandla arrived in his home area on Saturday morning and a villager became suspicious after he found him in a bushy area.

Mrs Ndebele said the villager escorted Mkandla to his parent’s homestead and left him there.

He said his family last saw him on Saturday evening when he said he was going to sleep.

“Mkandla is suspected to have attempted to commit suicide on Saturday morning because after disembarking from the bus he left his luggage along a pathway and headed for the bushes.

“A villager saw him and asked what he was doing but he failed to give a satisfactory explanation. When he reached home he told his parents that he was visiting for the weekend. He was acting normal all day and in the evening he retired to bed,” she said.

Mrs Ndebele said on the following morning, Mkandla’s family failed to locate him and they assumed that he had left to visit friends.

She said around 9AM his siblings reported that they had found him hanging from a tree.

Mrs Ndebele said his family suspected that he woke up in the middle of the night to end his life. The Chronicle