Mystery of gogo’s ‘suicide’
The family said Gogo Tholakele was always warning them against committing suicide - yet on Sunday she was found having apparently taken her own life
A WOMAN reported missing on Monday was found dead in bushes at Nkolokotho, Emlalazini near Somkhele area.
Tholakele Xaba (69) was found hanging from a tree on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of the deceased’s family, her grandchild Nobuhle Xaba said her grandmother had told them she had a bad headache.
‘She went to another room to fetch matches so that she could burn incense to reduce the pain.
‘Before she could even do that, she was screaming ‘headache…headache!’ and saying some people were calling her, and then she disappeared.
The family said Gogo Tholakele was always warning them against committing suicide – yet on Sunday she was found having apparently taken her own life.
‘The way she was hanging from that tree means there had been somebody who assisted her to climb up and hook the rope on the branch of the tree, because there was no chair there to support her to climb.
‘My grandmother was too old to have been able to do this, unless there was muthi that drove her to do it,’ said Nobuhle.
She further said they don’t know how are they going to cope because they all relied on her gogo pension as there is no one else working in the family.
KwaMsane police spokesperson Captain Jabulani Mdletshe confirmed the incident.
‘After we received a report of a missing person at Nkolokotho we did a thorough search of the area but came back empty-handed.
‘We were about to enlist the assistance of the Empangeni Dog Unit but then received the news that the missing person had been found dead.
‘An inquest docket has been opened for investigation but foul play is not suspected at this stage,’ said Mdletshe.
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