A 31-YEAR-OLD Mpopoma man committed suicide on Saturday night by hanging himself after a long running domestic dispute with his wife.
BENSON DUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT
Humphrey Mbanje hanged himself in a room of the house he shared with his wife Tryphine Ndlovu a few hours after he phoned and bade her farewell.
Ndlovu told Southern Eye yesterday that her husband had phoned her on Saturday night and bid her farewell, but it never crossed her mind that he would actually commit suicide.
Ndlovu said she later learnt that he had also called a number of relatives to say his final goodbyes before he was found hanging in one of the rooms of the four-roomed house.
“He phoned saying thank you for the time we lived together and said this is the last time I will talk to him on the phone,” Ndlovu said.
“I phoned my relatives and his friends in Mpopoma to go and check what was taking place. I was phoned and told that my husband had hanged himself and was dead.”
Ndlovu said they had a long running dispute starting from 2009 when they first had had a child. She went back home to stay with her parents after differences arose and returned in 2010 when Mbanje paid lobola for her.
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She said although they had misunderstandings before, huge problems resurfaced about a fortnight ago.
“I asked him why his girlfriends were phoning him at night and he became angry and beat me up and I returned to my parents. On Thursday we met and went to his friend Thabani Ndebele for counselling and it was agreed that on Monday (today) he was going to see my family and resolve our problems.
“I was surprised to hear him thanking me for the time we had together and telling me that he was going to take his life. I phoned his friend Ndebele who went to check and was told that he had hanged himself,” Ndlovu said.
Ndebele said he got a call from Ndlovu to go and investigate as he had indicated he was going to commit suicide. He went to Mbanje’s place and woke the landlord up after knocking on the deceased’s door several times without a response.
Together with the landlord, Ndebele went outside and peeped through the window of Mbanje’s room and saw him hanging from the rafters.
A neighbour Taken Mthombeni said Mbanje was unsettled although he did not think he would take his own life.
Mpopoma MP Bekithemba Nyathi said cases of suicides were becoming common in his constituency after two people killed themselves last month.
“Suicides are caused by poor governance that results in unemployment. Zimbabweans are not a happy people and they need to hold the government responsible for all these deaths,” Nyathi said.
