Jilted lover hangs self

A BULAWAYO man from Emakhandeni suburb is understood to have meditated for weeks and "apologised" to family members before committing suicide by hanging himself, it has been learnt.

Reports coming from the suburb are that Paul Mutete was a jilted man hours before he committed suicide in the early hours of Sunday.

He was found hanging from a tree at a house opposite his on Sunday morning.

Sources in the suburb say the woman in question has also committed suicide by taking poison, in what reads like a script from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play.

Mutete family spokesperson, a sister to the deceased, Colletta said her brother was prayerful for more than two weeks prior to his death.

"We are shocked that he is gone. All this time we did not read the signs he was trying to put to us, he said sorry to us before breaking out of the house to commit suicide," said Coletta.

She said her young brother seemed troubled and would spend hours a day praying.

"He tried to talk to the parents but I think they did not understand what he was trying to put across. He said sorry to all of us before waking up to the news that he was dead.

"We don't even know what was troubling him," said Coletta.

On reports that Mutete's lover had committed suicide, she said they were not aware of that development.

"We were with his girlfriend Faith here on Sunday. If there is anything that has happened to her we could have heard it by now because we go to the same church as her," said Coletta.

Sources in the neighbourhood say Mutete was caught with another girl by his lover who immediately broke up with her in front of the other girl.

"I think this did not go down well with him and resolved to take his life," said the source.

She said upon received the news that Mutete had taken his life, the lover also too poison to end her life.

Bulawayo provincial spokesperson, Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo, was not immediately available to shed more light on the matter.