NOEL IYOMBWA writes
@SunZambian
A FAMILY of Lusaka’s Ng’ombe Township has been left in total shock after losing two members in a space of three days, one in suicide and the other in unexplained circumstances.
And police stopped the family from the burying the bodies until postmortems have been carried out to establish the causes of the deaths.
Police suspected foul play and ordered for postmortem to be conducted, which was done on Wednesday and still waiting for a report, Zambia Police spokesperson, Esther Katongo said.
Ms. Katongo told the SUN in an interview, police would only proceed once the postmortem report was ready.
The two were finally buried on Wednesday, amidst claims of black magic being at play. The boy’s mother is particularly convinced that supernatural forces were behind the deaths.
– Picture by NOEL IYOMBWA
The family is still struggling to understand how an eleven year old boy could commit suicide and a few days later, his uncles dies suddenly from bleeding.
The first to die through suicide was Andrew Chanda, an eleven year old grade four pupil of Mumana Primary school who was found hanging in a family toilet on August 29, while his uncle Kelvin Chanda died as a result of bleeding from the nose on September 1.
Narrating the ordeal to the Sun, sister of the late Andrew, Bertha Chanda said that on August 29 her brother went to play football with his friends but returned home to have lunch.
She said on reaching home, Andrew told his sister that he wanted to have a bath before eating nshima and proceeded to the toilet where the bathroom was located.
Bertha said that after noticing that the toilet door was locked for a long time, one family member got concerned and peeped through the ventilation hole of the toilet to see what was happening and saw Andrew hanging from the roof of the toilet.
“Anachoka kusobela bola ku ground kuti adye sima,manje pamene anafika anakamba ati first asambe ndiye pamene azadya sima.
“Pamene anaenda mu toilet anachedwa so ba uncle bana sonjela kumbuyo ya toilet ndiye pamene banaona ninshi alikumwamba kumalata.Tinapwanya door nakupeza alikumutenge. Tinamupelaka pa Ngombe clinic pamene banitiuza ati amwalila.
(He came back from playing football so that he could eat nshima, but on reaching home, he decided to have a bath first. But he took some time in the toilet forcing his uncle to check for him through the air ventilator only to see Andrew hanging from the roof of the toilet. We broke the door of the toilet and took him to the clinic where he was pronounced dead),”she said.
Bertha said Andrew was a jovial boy who would not take his life and described the incident as ‘spiritually’ motivated.
She said that while people were preparing to bury Andrew, the uncle, Mr Chanda started bleeding from the nose forcing other members of the family to take him to Ng’ombe clinic where he was quickly referred to Levy Mwanawasa hospital where he died.
And the mother of Andrew, Beatrice Mutambo said that prior to her son and brother in-law’s deaths, a girl of the same area was bitten by the family a dog and later a man believed to be the grandfather of the girl threatened the Chanda family that something bad would happen to them.
“Pa Monday imbwa yathu inaluma muntu so ninamuuza yenda ku clinic bakupase prescription so that nigule makwala.
“Pa Tuesday ananiletela prescription so ninayenda ku town kusakila makwala manje ninaupeza ati niodula so ninabwela kunyumba kusakililapo ndalama.
“Manje usiku bashikulu bamwana analumiwa banabwela ninshi bakalipa. Nokunilangiza meno nakunifunsa ati wayaona meno aya yanasila. Ati ndine ng’anga muzachiona.”
(On Monday our family dog bit a girl from the same neighborhood so I advised the victim to go and get a medical report and a prescription so that I buy the medicine. On Tuesday I went to look for the medicine but found that it was too expensive so I returned home to look for more money. On same Tuesday night, the grandfather of the girl who was bitten by our dog came together with other people and started telling that he is a witchdoctor and that he will teach me a lesson. The man even told me that in his family there were 10 people but only three people are still alive),” Ms Mutambo explained.
The two were buried on Tuesday.
what were the results from the postmortem conducted on the two victims???. was it something paranormal???? was the accused interrogated