A man from Emganwini suburb in Bulawayo allegedly locked himself in a house and committed suicide following an argument with his girlfriend over a WhatsApp profile picture.

Tenants who shared the same house found Ngqwele Sibanda (28)’s body in an advanced state of decomposition yesterday – a week after he allegedly killed himself.

Sibanda and his girlfriend, only identified as Brie, allegedly quarrelled after the former posted a picture of himself with another woman on his WhatsApp profile.

A post mortem conducted at the United Bulawayo Hospitals was inconclusive on the cause of death.

A tenant who declined to be named said she had last seen Sibanda on Sunday last week.

She said they (tenants) became concerned after an unpleasant odour emanated from Sibanda’s room.

“It smelt rotten but we never suspected it was a body. We did not bother checking on Sibanda as it was common for him to go for days without anyone seeing him,” said the tenant.

Sibanda is said to have been living with his younger brother who was away due to work commitments.

The tenant said Sibanda was also a lodger at the house but was responsible for buying electricity.

She said when the house ran out of power, they smelt a bad odour but the other tenants assumed it was meat that had gone bad in Sibanda’s fridge.

The woman said she started receiving calls from Brie who was also worried about him following their fight.

“He had a major fight with his girlfriend after he uploaded a picture of himself with another woman on WhatsApp. They fought and exchanged harsh words resulting in Brie reporting the matter to the police. Sibanda threatened to kill himself,” said the tenant.

She said Brie later called saying she had withdrawn the case against Sibanda.

“Brie joked saying we should check his room because he might have committed suicide. But I laughed it off saying a man doesn’t commit suicide over a woman, it’s something that can only be done by women,” said the tenant.

The tenant said Sibanda’s younger brother arrived home on Sunday but could not access their room.

“On Monday we asked one of the boys to peep through the window. He
looked spooked and tried to run away. He struggled to say what he had seen before he eventually told us that Sibanda’s body was in the room,” she said.

She said a report was made to the police who broke into the house.

Sibanda’s relative, Mr Richard Mkandla, said: “When I arrived the police had removed the body but there were some blood stains on the floor. The smell was horrible… we had to use sand mixed with some chemicals to clean the floor. But it took us hours to make the room habitable.”

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the sudden death saying investigations were underway.

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