Rhodes University in Grahamstown was struck by a third tragedy in as many months on Tuesday when another student committed suicide.
Captain Nomazi Nkombisa said on Wednesday that Hilton Sieberhagen (25) was found sitting on a toilet seat at his parents’ Kenton-on-Sea holiday home. He had a bullet wound in the head.
Foul play was not suspected, Nkombisa said. Rhodes University spokesperson Linda Burton, who sounded shaken by the student’s death, said that Sieberhagen had been in the third year of his Bachelor of Commerce degree. Burton said it was not known why he killed himself.
In May, a fifth-year Polish student Konrad Kulesza (23) hanged himself on a hockey goalpost on the Rhodes campus. Kulesza had apparently first tried to take his life in April by driving his car into the Drostdy Arch, a large concrete structure at the top of Grahamstown’s High Street. He had subsequently received treatment at Fort England, a psychiatric hospital.
Kulesza had already obtained his Bachelor of Commerce degree and was studying history and economics as extra credits. Earlier in May, the murder of a journalism student Tumi Manyadioane (22) of Zimbabwe, shocked the university.
Her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Makuvaro (27) also a Zimbabwean, was charged with her murder.
He disappeared and a few days later phoned a friend. While talking to Makuvaro on the phone, the friend heard the sound of an oncoming train and then there was silence. He went to the police to report the strange call he received from Makuvaro.
Makuvaro’s dismembered body was found some time later on a railway track outside Grahamstown.
Police later established that Makuvaro was speaking to his friend on his cellular phone seconds before he died. – Sapa