West End, Northern Cape - “Bring back my baby! Bring back my baby! I want him back! Why must I suffer so much!” cried a mother of a man whose body was found hanging from a tree at the West End Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon.
Richard Tshetsha, 26, an apparently mentally unstable man, committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope from the tree.
“He (Tshetsha) suffered from a particular mental disorder,” a family member told reporters.
Tshetsha’s mother, Nonkosi Tshetsha, wailed and threw herself to the ground on several occasions as she stood next to the concrete slabs that surround the cemetery yard.
“I want to see my baby! Let me see my baby,” she yelled as forensic officers, who were at the scene, cut the rope.
The place where Nonkosi was standing was only a few metres from the tree where her son was hanging from.
Community members gathered to support Nonkosi and at one point they gave her water after she collapsed on a piece of land where her son’s shack once stood in the Tambo Square squatter camp, just a few metres from the cemetery.
Other family members also arrived and they all wept as the pathology personnel removed Tshetsha’s body.
Those who spoke to the media said that they did not know why Tshetsha had hanged himself.
“He was fine when we saw him this morning, we do not know why he killed himself,” they said.
Tshetsha’s body was discovered by Thulani Toloane and Justice Magoje, who were walking through the cemetery to get to their homes in Galeshewe.
“We were coming from a scrapyard in West End and we decided to walk through the cemetery as we were going back home. We were shocked to see the body of a man hanging from the tree and that is when we alerted other members of the public,” Toloane said.
Some of the residents of Tambo Square said that Tshetsha was seen walking around the area earlier in the day.
“We are shocked because we did not think that anything like this would happen to him,” they added.
Northern Cape police spokesman, Lieutenant Donald Mdhluli, said that they have opened an inquest docket in connection with Tshetsha’s death.
Sol Plaatje Municipal spokesman, Sello Matsie, confirmed that the incident occurred at the West End Cemetery.
“We would like to pass our condolences to Tshetsha’s family. We also urge people to speak to other members of the public, especially the faith-based leaders, when they have problems so that we can avert such tragedies in the future.”
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