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Police officers collect the body of Godfrey Marange from a house where he was staying in Emakhandeni, Bulawayo. Inset, the late Godfrey Marange

Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent —
A MAN who sent a suicide note to his family’s WhatsApp chat group has been found hanged. Godfrey Marange, 38, told his family he had “paid for my sins” and asked that they look after his wife and children. Marange, of Emakhandeni suburb in Bulawayo, sent the apparent suicide message just before midnight on Sunday, only to be found at around 5AM hanging from a mango tree at his house.
His family said they were in the dark over what drove Marange to take his life, leaving behind his wife and four children.
Marange’s WhatsApp message suggested that he had done something terrible which, if he had been alive, would have brought suffering to his family.
His brother, Tapiwa Marange, said they failed to locate him from the time they received his disturbing message until he was found dead. He said they were shocked by the suicide.
The message, said Tapiwa, was first seen by a relative who lives in the United Kingdom who then communicated with Marange’s wife who lived with her husband in Emakhandeni.
“She phoned his wife who told her that he was not home. His wife is not on the group chat. Our sister phoned me and told me about the message which I checked and started phoning him and spoke to him. He said I shouldn’t be worried as he was going home,” said Tapiwa.
He said his brother, who was a member of Caps United Football Club Bulawayo supporters’ chapter executive, kept changing his statements about his whereabouts only to be discovered by children who were readying for school after 5AM.
“At one point he said he was on his way home but when I last spoke to him he told me that he was at Selbourne Hotel in town. He even gave the hotel number of the room he was at. So I was hoping to go check for him there in the morning,” said Tapiwa.
He said it was difficult for the family to come to terms with his actions as he did not show any signs of being troubled or depressed.
When a Chronicle news crew visited his house yesterday, scores of residents were gathered outside the house.
His friends expressed shock saying they were with him on Sunday watching football in the city centre.
The troubling WhatsApp message released by Marange’s family said: “I’m sorry to you guys miyedzo yepano panyika yakandikunda mufunge, asi torai chidzidzo kune pane izvi, ndaikwanisa kusadai asi vana vangu vaizongotambura ndiri mupenyu. Handina domestic kana mumwe munhu andituka ndabhadara zvivi zvangu zvepanyika, saka ndati dzidzai kubva pandiri.
“Mukadzi wangu ndinomuda nevana vangu, dai maikwanisa mamubatsirawo kuchengeta vana vedu ava, kudhara mhoswa dzaasingazivi. Chemai muine tariro vana sisi munun’una neni mukoma, sorry henyu masibbling ndapusawo ndikashaya zwekuita.”
The message translates to: “I’m sorry to you guys, I was overcome by the temptations of this world, but take the lesson from this. I wish I didn’t have to do this but my children would have suffered, even if I was alive. I don’t have any domestic problems and there is no one who has insulted me but I have paid for my sins here on earth, so I say learn from me.
“I love my wife and kids and if you are able please help her raise my kids, to pay for crimes they don’t know. Grieve with hope sisters, younger brother and you elder brother. Sorry my siblings to have been foolish. I didn’t know what else to do.”