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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
A MARRIED volunteer cop, 46, allegedly committed suicide by drinking an unknown poison at his girlfriend’s house in Victoria Falls, angry that she had ended their 12-year relationship.

Kosam Dapi and girlfriend Nomathemba Ncube, 41, allegedly had a longstanding dispute because she did not want to have a child with him.

Dapi, who was married and had six children who all live with their mother in his rural home in Bikita, Masvingo province took the poison at Ncube’s house in Chinotimba on Friday evening and died at Victoria Falls General Hospital on Saturday morning, his family confirmed.

The two lovebirds had been co-habiting throughout their affair and Ncube has two children aged 24 and 17 from a previous marriage.

Dapi, who was also employed by Peace Security as a security guard and was a curio carver, separated from Ncube, but he could not stomach their split.

Neighbours said Dapi had allegedly threatened to kill her and later commit suicide for dumping him.

Matabeleland North police spokesperson Inspector Siphiwe Makonese could not be reached for comment but Dapi’s relative, Rugere Sangu said the man left a suicide note detailing his problems with Ncube, but could not divulge further details of the letter.

“I received a call on Friday that Dapi was threatening to drink poison. I rushed to his house where I found his bicycle outside and as I inquired from neighbours, they said he had returned from work and left in a hurry,” said Sangu.

He said after seeing the suicide note he immediately rushed to Ncube’s house but was too late as he had been whisked away in an ambulance.

“It was around 6PM when I found an ambulance taking him away from his girlfriend’s place. We went to the hospital and left him there at about 11PM but we received a call around 4AM that he had died. I don’t know what they were fighting over but the letter suggested they were not in good books. They had been staying together for a long time but had separated recently,” said Sangu.

He said Dapi’s body was at the hospital’s mortuary as they were waiting for the arrival of his relatives from Bikita.

After drinking the poison, Dapi collapsed in the street three houses away from the girlfriend’s house.

Ncube had rushed to inform the police after alerting neighbours.

She told The Chronicle yesterday that she wrestled her boyfriend trying to snatch the bottle which contained the poisonous substance but he overpowered her.

“We started dating 12 years ago and we had been staying together for a long time. We separated last month and I moved out of the house because we had been fighting as he was no longer supporting me. He also wanted us to have a child and I had been telling him we can’t because he had never bothered to meet my family as a son-in-law despite being together for 12 years,” said Ncube.

She said she was aware that Dapi was married with six children.

Ncube said Dapi had threatened to commit suicide last week.

“He came to me on Monday last week and said he was going to kill me on Thursday before killing himself. I told my aunt who counselled him and he seemed to have understood. We were supposed to visit my uncle in Lupinyu to talk about the issue of our separation,” she said.

“I was in Zambia on Friday when he phoned me asking why I didn’t want to go back to our house. I told him I needed time. When I got here around 6PM he came to my house and I heard him talking to somebody over the phone, telling that person that he had arrived at the house of a woman who was rejecting him and he was going to kill himself for that.”

He approached me and held my hand saying he had come to say goodbye.

She said he took out a bottle from his pocket and she tried to take it away from him, but he overpowered her.

“Some of the liquid spilt onto my arm and it smelt terrible. I called neighbours as I rushed to the police post but when neighbours arrived he had already drunk the substance.

“I was scared I couldn’t even get into the hospital ward to see him,” said Ncube.

She said she was still trying to come to terms with what had happened.