Man hangs self in cop shop

FOR days Kopano Kesilwe (37) camped at the police station, pleading for help.

But in the end, he decided the assistance he got from the Meadowlands, Soweto cop shop wasn't enough.

On Friday morning he wrote four suicide notes and hanged himself from a tree at the police station.

Kopano's uncle, Happy Maifadi (52), told Daily Sun Kopano had been complaining about friends who wanted to kill him for months. He said at first they didn't take him seriously, but realised he was having major trouble when he decided to stay locked up in his room.

"When we asked him why they wanted to kill him he said he didn't know."

He said his nephew was a hard worker who sold clothes.

"He loved dressing up."

Happy said the family had just asked Kopano to move into his late uncle's house. "We didn't know he was afraid of living alone. The cops failed my nephew."

Happy said the cops gave Kopano a formal letter with a police stamp to personally take to his tormentors.

"How did they expect Kopano to face the people he was afraid of? He spent two nights at the police station before he decided to kill himself."

Happy told the SunTeam Kopano was not crazy because he wrote four letters that made sense.

"The cops told me they knew Kopano was there. They even told me they bought him bread and cold drink when he was hungry. Kopano needed protection more than food and they neglected that."

Provincial cops spokesman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that a man hanged himself at the Meadowlands Police Station and said an inquest had been opened.