SIBLINGS 4, 5 FOUND PLAYING UNDER HANGING SISTER (10)

KAMFISHANE – Two children spent some time playing next to their sibling’s corpse on Wednesday, believing she was also participating in their game.

The disturbing incident occurred at KaMfishane, where the two boys aged four and five were found playing underneath the dead body of their elder sister, which was dangling from a tree.
The area is situated halfway between Hlatikhulu and Sithobela.

Community members were left shocked when 10-year-old Makhosothando Maphalala was found hanging from the tree situated next to a river where she had been herding goats with two younger siblings.

The young girl was a pupil doing Grade IV at Ekuphakameni Community Primary School, which recently hit newspaper headlines for the suspension of a girl who was relentlessly bullied by her peers. This was after the girl’s siblings took revenge on her behalf and beat up the alleged bullies.

However, it could not be immediately established why Makhosothando ended up taking the decision to take away her own life by hanging herself with a rope. An inquiry into the life she led at school revealed that she was a bit on the quiet side and short tempered as well, indicating that something might have upset her prior to taking the drastic decision.

At school, they said they did not notice anything strange from the girl until she left for home shortly after 2pm.
Her grandmother had her food waiting for her, and she took the meal shortly after her arrival and started changing her clothes in readiness to take the family goats to the grazing land.

The pupil cut her life short by hanging herself with a rope while herding the goats at a grazing territory located only a few yards from her homestead.
Her grieving grandfather, identified as Makhula Maphalala, recalled that the girl returned home from school at around 2:30pm and headed to her room where she changed her clothes but without raising any suspicion.

He said as usual, she took her two younger siblings with her and drove the family goats to the grazing area.
“We were seated at the yard with their grandmother. I only gave her a task to check on one of the fields situated closer to home, because there were goats belonging to neighbours which were causing a nuisance, damaging crops, before taking the family livestock to the grazing land.

“That was the last time I spoke to her,” he lamented.
After leaving the family compound, it is understood that the girl proceeded to the grazing area alongside her younger siblings.
It was while the children were playing games with water next to a local river when the girl eventually climbed a tree with a rope noosed around her neck, tied the other end of the rope on a tree branch, before jumping off.

It was around 3pm on Wednesday when this took place in front of the other children, who thought it was all part of the games they were playing.
The young boys are said to have carried on playing with water nearby their sister’s dangling dead body, believing that she was just standing as her feet were only a few centimetres above the ground.
A passerby noticed that the girl was unresponsive, but the children were oblivious to this.
The woman later told the girl’s family that at first she also thought the girl was standing and only got to realise that something was amiss when she took note of the rope from which the body was dangling.
She frantically tried to save the girl but later realised it was already too late as she was no longer responsive.
The woman then yelled out to two young girls who were passing by the area and instructed them to rush to the Maphalala homestead to notify the family about the shocking discovery.
The girl’s prophet grandfather could not believe it at first when the sad news was related to him.
Maphalala said he immediately left whatever he was doing and headed straight to the spot where he was told her granddaughter was discovered hanging.
“I made my own inspection of the scene and got convinced she was dead as well. I then rushed to the shops to make a call to the police, who later arrived and made their own investigation of the scene,” Maphalala narrated.
The girl’s body was then taken away by the police to a mortuary, where it was to be kept while investigations were ongoing.
The matter was confirmed by Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Khulani Mamba, when contacted yesterday.
Mamba indicated that initial investigations suggested no foul play but the matter was still subject to an investigation.
The incident comes hot on the heels of an almost similar occurrence, where a 12-year-old boy of Buhlebuyeza was found hanging from a tree on Monday. Again, there was no immediate explanation on why the Grade VI pupil also decided to cut his life short so early in life.
However, Clinical Psychologist Ndo Mdlalose tried to explain the phenomenon when approached earlier on.
She said it was not particularly clear why people tend to find it easy to end their lives nowadays.
She noted that what was particularly disheartening was the fact that in most instances, the reasons advanced for the decision to end one’s life would be ridiculous, if not irresponsible.
Mdlalose believes there cannot be any singular cause for people to kill themselves.
She said while most cases can be attributed to depression, there could be other underlying causes for the phenomenon.
“We encourage people, especially family members, to seek help immediately when they note suicidal behaviour in a member. “Suicide can never offer a solution to a person’s problems, so it is always better to confide in another person,” she warned.
She said people can access professional help by dialling the helpline 7602 1111.

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