According to ZiMoja, the family of a grade 10 learner who died in an apparent suicide, needs help to bury her. Musa Tshabalala (16) was doing grade 10 at East Bank High School in Alexandra in Johannesburg drank rat poison to end his life. Musa committed suicide on 17 April and her 78-year-old grandmother is struggling to bury her.
Musa’s cousin, Buyisiwe Tshabalala, told ZiMoja that she believed that she killed herself because she has never met her mother. “Musa’s upbringing was very sad. She was conceived through rpe when her mother was only 12-years old. After she gave birth to Musa, she dumped her with her grandmother who raised her. It was always bugging Musa that she never got to know her mother. When she found out that she was conceived through rpe, she began asking lot of questions and it broke her even more when she was told that the alleged r*pist is a family member,” Tshabalala said.
Tshabalala told ZiMoja weeks before Musa took her life, she wanted more answers on her alleged father and mother and that her grandmother was not free to share the information with her. “She felt like she was the reason her mother never came back home and what made things worse was the situation at home, Our grandmother is poor and was supporting her with a grant, which was not enough- things were bad,” she added. The grandmother is struggling to put money together to pay for Musa’s burial and is pleading for help.