Silobela suicide woman finally buried 2 months after death

THE body of a Silobela woman who allegedly committed suicide over her husband’s infidelity was finally laid to rest at her parents’ homestead almost two months after she died amid contentions between her family and that of her husband.

The body of Alphina Bhebhe who hanged herself in the family house on 12 October and had been stuck at Silobela Hospital Mortuary after her family refused to bury her, accusing her husband, Mr Freeman Sibanda, of foul play was only buried last Monday.

The Bhebhe family demanded that Mr Sibanda pays them 11 beasts which he failed to do, leading to an impasse.

After failing to meet the demands, Mr Sibanda allegedly disappeared to an unknown destination leaving the family with no option but to bury the body which was almost at an advanced state of decomposition.

Silobela National Assembly Member Cde Mthokozisi Manoki Mpofu confirmed the development saying the matter had caused instability in the area.

“Yes, the lady’s body was finally laid to rest after the husband just vanished. We are glad that the Bhebhe family finally took our advice and put the soul of their daughter to rest,” said Cde Mpofu.

He said both local, traditional and political leadership had tried in vain to intervene.

“Both Chief Malisa and myself, tried to intervene saying they should put the body to rest and deal with the matter later but they did not want to take hid.

“So we have every reason to celebrate when they finally took action as we feared for the worst as the body was said to be decomposing in mortuary due to power cuts,” he said.

Reached for comment, Alphina’s father, Mr Nicholas Bhebhe said as a family they were left with no option but to bury their daughter.

“It’s something that I do not like talking about but we sat down as a family and saw it fit that we lay her to rest. Since her husband had run away from the responsibility, we decided to take her body to our homestead where we laid her to rest,” he said.

Asked on the allegations of foul play against Mr Sibanda which made them demand the eleven beasts, Mr Bhebhe said he was not in a position to talk about it

“As a family there are some things that we looked at and did not understand and we wanted answers from our son-in-law that he could not give, so we had to do some rituals but all the same, the most important thing is that we finally buried her,” said Mr Bhebhe.