In a horrific incident, a 10 year-old girl from Chirongoma Village, a stone throw away from Lake Mutirikwi in Chief Mugabe’s area had the agony of watching her mother tie a rope around her neck before hanging herself from a tree.

The girl who cannot be named for ethical reasons saw the whole episode of suicide by hanging.

Her grandmother Mbuya Aleta Gunyangu–Jaricha said that the juvenile who is one of the most brilliant pupils at Boroma Primary School is showing signs of unexplained fear and may suffer nervous breakdown if she does not receive the right counselling as a matter of urgency.

The juvenile’s school head, Esdon Mukuma confirmed the story and said that one of the school teachers who specialised in the area of counselling will start working on the girl next week and the case will be taken to a district specialist if the problem proves to be too big for the local teacher.

The girl talked to The Mirror and said she cried throughout as her mother went through the paces of hanging herself.

“Mama vakasvuvura gavi, vakazvisunga muhuro. Vakabva vakwira mumuti murefu vakasungira gavi riya pamuti ndokubva vazvirembedza.

Vakatanga kukava-kava vakaita weti. Ini ndaingochema ndichidaidza vanhu. Vanhu vakazouya vakandiudza kuti mama vako vatofa (My mother got a fresh tree bark and tied it around her neck. She climbed up a very tall tree and tied the bark to the tree branch. She then jumped off from the branch and dangled in the air and kicked around as she tried to remove the bark from her neck. She passed urine and I was crying out for help until some villagers came and told me that my mother was dead,” said the juvenile.

Masvingo Police spokesperson Chief Inspector Charity Mazula said she is not aware of the incident.

Mbuya Jaricha said her daughter’s death pained her so much that she feels like dying.

She however, said what made the death worse is that Ellen committed suicide while her own little daughter watched.

“I really don’t understand why Ellen had to do that when her daughter was watching. When I look at my granddaughter and try to think of what she went through I almost faint.

“My granddaughter came back from the hill a while after she left with her mother. She was holding her mother’s shoes in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. We were sitting here and I asked her where her mother was and she said she hung herself and was dead.

No one said anything. For what seemed like a decade everyone remained quiet.

“Now my granddaughter is afraid even to enter the house alone, even in the afternoon. She has fear. I am really frightened that she can have a nervous breakdown because of what she saw,” said Mbuya Jaricha.

Mukuma said the juvenile is one of the best grade four pupils in the school always coming among the top three in the two classes in her grade.
“She is a very bright pupil and we fear that her mother’s death might affect her perfomance and even her life in a very negative way,” said Mbuya Jaricha.

Ellen hung herself after some differences with her mother who was not happy that she left the mother’s home to go and stay with her father’s girlfriend Edna Chiringima in Mlambo village which is just close by.

On the fateful day Ellen’s father, her mother and other relatives had a meeting over the issue and Ellen agreed to go and bring back her clothes from her father’s small house where she was staying. She is said to have cried out aloud after the meeting. She then left with her daughter in tour and only to hang herself a few kilometres from home.

Her husband Nosta Muleya who comes from Maranda in Mwenezi but is now living in South Africa last communicated in 2014 and Mbuya Jaricha has been struggling to look after her daughter and the two grandchildren.

She appealed for assistance both for counselling and fees for the children who are both very bright.
–The Mirror