Bedridden Catholic clergyman dies, suicide suspected

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M- In a rather mysterious occurrence, a 57-year-old Roman Catholic clergyman, Thembinkosi Mdlovu of Maphungwane died after allegedly committing suicide.

It is said that the clergyman, who was bedridden, allegedly drank a weevil tablet which subsequently ended his life last week.

A senior member of the family, Phasile Mdlovu, said the clergyman had been sick and bedridden for over a year before making a decision to allegedly take his own life. Mdlovu revealed that the deceased had been taken to numerous hospitals in the country, such as The Luke Commission, Mbabane Government Hospital, Mankayane Government Hospital and the Good Shepherd Hospital, but all were not able to treat him of the rare sickness.

According to the senior family member, Thembinkosi was not only a clergyman but also a committee member of the local high school, Mphundle.

“Before he was afflicted by the illness, the deceased was also an active farmer in the community and we are flabbergasted by the turn of events that led to his demise,” lamented Phasile.

He said after they discovered that he was already dead after allegedly drinking

The late Roman Catholic Cleregyman, Thembinkosi Mdlovu.

the weevil tablet, they immediately notified the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).

“His body was taken for a postmortem to establish the cause of death,” narrated the senior family member.

Bedridden

Another close family member told Eswatini News that the deceased had been sick and bedridden for a long period and shockingly allegedly crawled to fetch the weevil tablets from a location only known to himself in the vicinity of his homestead.

The family member alleged that Thembinkosi then crawled back to his sick bed and drank the weevil tablet while his sister was away to fetch water at a nearby stream.

The senior family member alleged that the deceased reached this decision to take his life as he was tired of being taken care of and he thought that he would no longer recover from the undisclosed sickness. The deceased clergyman is survived by three children (all boys) while his wife died over 10 years ago after a short illness.

Community members at Maphungwane who preferred to remain anonymous said the deceased Roman Catholic clergyman had communicated his unwillingness to continue to live as he always complained of the excruciating pain he had to endure due to the rare sickness.

One community member said they did not take him seriously as he was a Christian and they never suspected that he would take the suicide option and end his life.

The deceased was leader of the Roman Catholic community branch at St Gabriel.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed this incident.

Former Indvuna yeNkhundla of the Matsanjeni North Constituency, Bhekithemba Matsenjwa, said the death of the clergyman left them with more questions than answers.

He has called upon the REPS to leave no stone unturned in that area as there were a lot of people who had died in this manner.

He noted with concern the multiple deaths in the community whereby suicide was allegedly cited.