WITH the little life that was left inside her, one woman fought to christen her newly born baby before breathing her last a few decades ago.
On her bedside, she left a piece of paper on which she had written her child’s name – Mugove Chituzu
The ill-fated circumstances that marked the start of Mugove’s life would continue to haunt him throughout his life.
His existence, it appeared, was mired in a web of hopping from one unfortunate life event to the next.
Having been dealt this devastating blow at birth, Mugove was raised at an orphanage where circumstance always seemed to conspire against giving him a fair shot at succeeding in life. Upon reaching 18 years of age, he was ejected from the orphanage as he had reached adulthood.
What awaited him outside was a difficult life, one of constantly moving from one thankless job to the next. Coupled with an addiction to hard drugs, this cocktail of wretched circumstances threatened to drive him to the brink of giving up.
Last week, Mugove tried to put an end to it all. He survived a suicide attempt after launching himself from the ninth floor of Tanganyika House in central Harare, marking a sad turn of events for the youthful Hatcliffe man, who seems to have never known rest since birth.
with him, she noticed that Mugove was exhibiting traits of drug abuse.
“After he got a job at a hardware shop in town, he moved out to live with a friend.
“They later went their separate ways after a feud with their landlord.”
She last heard from Mugove when he was committed to a drug rehabilitation centre, where he was recovering from drug addiction.
Upon release from the centre, he moved to Epworth.
Not much is known about the circumstances that led to his suicide attempt last Tuesday. A vendor who sells soft drinks adjacent to the scene of the attempted suicide told The Sunday Mail that before the incident, Mugove had asked her for water as he was making his way into Tanganyika House.
The witness, who also chose to remain anonymous, said Mugove was shouting and complaining about being tormented by “invisible people” whom he said wanted to kill him.
“I saw him that morning when he asked me for water,” said the witness, adding that he appeared intoxicated. He then said someone was trying to kill him, and he proceeded with his mission.”
Minutes later, Mugove would leap from the building in an apparent suicide attempt.
“I was shocked after coming across pictures of him on WhatsApp when he attempted suicide,” said the Hatcliffe woman who stayed with him earlier.
“I always noticed that he exhibited traits of mental health issues, but never thought he would attempt suicide.”
She added: “He is a good person; I never imagined it would come to this.”
National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said the authorities were worried about rising cases of suicides in Zimbabwe.
“The cases are worryingly increasing,” he said.
“We are analysing the issue in order to come up with correct statistics of suicide cases and related data. Once these details become available, we will provide them to the public.”
The latest available World Health Organisation data, reported on in 2019, shows that 14 out of 100 000 deaths in Zimbabwe are a result of suicide.
Source – Zimbabwe situation
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