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Marvelous Moyo Gwanda correspondent
A kombi driver committed suicide by hanging himself after his vehicle hit and killed a beast along Zvishavane-Mbalabala Road.
The incident occurred on Wednesday last week. Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele identified the deceased driver as Simbarashe Rutanira, 38, of house number 174 Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge.

“On December 11, 2013, Rutanira was driving a public service vehicle, an Iveco, from Zvishavane direction going towards Bulawayo.
Around 11pm, the vehicle hit a beast and the driver stopped about 500 metres from the point of the accident,” Insp Ndebele said.

“Afterwards, the driver parked the vehicle just on the side of the road at the 165,5km peg along Zvishavane-Mbalabala Road.”

He said the driver disembarked from  the vehicle and ran into the nearby bush leaving the passengers on board with the conductor.
“He never returned until the passengers started complaining and demanded to be refunded by the conductor so that they could look for alternative transport to continue with their journey,” said Insp Ndebele.

On seeing that the driver had gone for too long, the conductor eventually refunded the passengers and was left alone to wait for the driver.

Insp Ndebele said the conductor had to spend the night in the vehicle as the vehicle had to be secured as he did not know the whereabouts of Rutanira.

“Rutanira’s body was found hanging from a branch of a tree in the bush by two boys who were driving cattle to the pastures,” he said.
The boys alerted the locals who upon their arrival traced where the deceased was coming from.

They saw a vehicle parked on the   roadside and decided to make enquiries from the conductor who was still waiting for the return of his driver to no avail.

“The conductor was taken to the scene and he positively identified the body as that of his driver, Rutanira. The matter was reported to the police who attended to the scene. The body was taken for postmortem,” said Insp Ndebele

“The matter is under investigation. However, as the police we do not suspect any foul play,” he added.
Insp Ndebele said suicide cases were on the increase in the province and urged members of the public to seek counselling if they faced problems rather than resorting to committing suicide.