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Oswell Moyo Chronicle Reporter
THE MOTHER of the 12 year-old boy who hanged himself on Sunday in Emganwini collapsed yesterday and was hospitalised at Mpilo Hospital after suffering from shock. Ferdinand Makonye, a Grade Seven pupil at Senzangakhona Primary School committed suicide by hanging using a scarf in his mother’s bedroom and relatives are still shocked as to what may have driven him to take his life.

On the fateful day, the boy’s parents were in Maphisa, where his father works.
Ferdinand’s father, Precious Makonye told Chronicle that his wife was greatly traumatised by their son’s sudden death.

“My wife was very shocked to an extent that she ended behaving like an insane person. She was so aggressive to anyone who came close to her. I think the death of Ferd caused a lot of harm to her,” said Makonye.

He said he was equally shocked that his son had hanged himself because he did not have the capacity to kill himself.
“I am shocked by this incident. Ferd was a good boy who was always in a jovial mood. We need to sit as family and discuss this issue,” said Makonye.

The boy’s emotional aunt Mercy Faranai, who had been left with the boy yesterday, described him as a happy child who could never have hanged himself.
“On Saturday we were happy and Ferd was in a good mood. I never suspected that Ferd could commit suicide. He liked to watch cartoons and when I left him he was watching the cartoons,” said Faranai.

She said that she left him at around 10AM when she was going to church.
“I went to church at around 10AM. I had left Ferd watching cartoons and playing with my two cellphones. When I arrived at about 1AM in preparation to go to town, I was amazed to notice that dishes which were supposed to be washed by him were not yet washed and the door to the bedroom was opened,” said Faranai.

“I asked him why he hadn’t washed the plates while I was still in the sitting room. There was no response which made me to proceed to the bedroom. Upon arrival I was shocked to notice that Ferd had hanged himself.”

The boy is expected to be buried today.