PUPIL CUTS THROAT WITH SCISSORS, DIES

MBABANE – In a suspected suicide case, a student was found dead in one of the dormitories at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Mbabane Campus yesterday morning.

Ray Mthembu (29) of Dryhoek in Nkomanzi, northern Hhohho, was last seen by his colleagues on Tuesday during their workshop study classes as they prepared for the ongoing examinations.  He was in his last year of a degree in Mental Health Nursing, that he was pursuing at the university.

Evidence

Police from the Forensic Department and detectives were on the scene yesterday morning, to gather evidence and collect Mthembu’s lifeless body. One of the students, a close friend of the deceased, said he met Mthembu’s brother Brian on his way from buying food in town and he enquired when last they had seen him. “I told him that I last saw Ray on Tuesday in class, as such workshops are barely attended by students, his absence was not really recognised, but we started to worry when he failed to show up for a test we were writing this morning (yesterday),” the friend said.

That was when they started to worry about his whereabouts and started calling his number, which was no longer available yesterday. His brother Brian said he started calling Ray on Tuesday and he was not answering until Wednesday night, when his number was suddenly out of network, presumably out of battery. Ray stayed off campus but is known to use a friend’s dormitory frequently. His friends rushed for a spare key to open the dormitory, which was locked, and found his motionless and lifeless body on top of the bed.

A security guard in the school recalled that he saw him drinking from a milk container on Tuesday and entered one of the abandoned structures nearby. “We do not know what could have triggered our brother to end his life but personally I noticed that he had financial struggles. “Not long ago, I helped him with E5 000, and just recently, a homeboy told me that he borrowed E3 000 from him. I told him that I will pay that money personally, as my brother was seemingly going through a lot,” Brian said. It is not the first time that a university student has ended their life while on campus.

Embraced

In 2022, the Office of Student Counsellor Babili Kunene embraced the ‘No Student Hungry Project,’ aimed at reducing hunger among students amid the surging number of suicides on campus. The initiative ensures that vulnerable students could get at least a meal a day, which resulted in the decrease in the number of suicides. Recently, Senator Fezeka Dlamini of the Temabheka Foundation knocked on the ‘No Student Hungry Project’ doors with the will to help. Vice Chancellor, Professor Justice Thwala mentioned during the launch, that the number of suicides rose from six in 2008 to 12 in 2021, attributable to a number of factors, some of which were not being able to provide for basic needs. He implored politicians that had attended the event to advocate for increased funding tertiary education and thanked Temabheka Foundation for the initiative to assist with the project.
Deceased’s girlfriend allegedly killed by ex-lover recently.

Can this be a mental health suicide?
These are some of the questions Ray’s friends asked themselves as they revealed that his girlfriend Nondumiso Vilakati (21) was allegedly raped and stabbed multiple times to her death by a former lover just a month ago. One of his friends said the death of his girlfriend took a visible toll on Mthembu, among other things, that included alleged registration fees.

Brutally

The story was reported by this Eswatini News on October 5, 2024, and the sad ordeal is said to have happened in front of an elderly woman at Nkiliji, where she was working as her helper.  “His girlfriend was recently brutally murdered, and we think this might have affected him,” said one of the students. Brian revealed that he asked for bus fare to go and attend the funeral. He said he advised him not to attend the funeral, but gave him bus fare money, as he insisted on wanting to bid her farewell.

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