The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
A ZIMBABWEAN man was a couple of weeks ago found dead in his rented apartment in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Andile Magagula (25), son to the late former Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Director of Housing and Community Services, Isiah Magagula, had completed his university degree in accounting early in the year and was set to start a new job last week on Wednesday.
He was reportedly found unresponsive by the police who had been informed by relatives that they had lost communication with him.
His mother, Ms Sifiso Khumalo told Sunday News that her son had been complaining of a stomach bug and had been throwing up.
“Andile said he was vomiting and his stomach was sore on Wednesday 1 June, so I told him to take some milk and visit the doctor. Thursday, I checked on him and he was ok, Friday I did the same and he said he was fine. But on Saturday I sent him messages and he did not respond,” said Ms Khumalo.
She said on Sunday, she sent him over 15 messages on his phone but he never responded and then she sent Thembi Magagula, a cousin also in Canada to check on him. “Thembi said she had spoken to him two days before via text message. I also asked a family friend Sithokozile to also check on him as I was not getting any response from him. She sent him messages too and she decided to ask the police to go to his apartment to physically check on him. On Sunday they broke down his door and found him dead,” she said.
Ms Khumalo said on Monday at 4am last week she was then woken up by someone knocking at her gate.
“I was woken up by a visitor at the gate and it was Sithokozile’s sister. I asked her if everything was ok with my son since she had come at 4 am and initially she said Sithokozile had said Andile had been taken to hospital but I sensed there was a problem by just looking at their faces. They then called Sithokozile in Canada who started telling me that they had to send the police to his apartment and they found him dead,” she said sobbing.
Ms Khumalo said reports from Canada suggest that he may have died on Saturday but the post-mortem is not offering any answers as to the case of death.
“We got the results and they are not showing us any cause of death, the corona said they found nothing in his body that could link to the cause of death. They said the cause of death is unknown at this point but more tests are going to be run to further check what could have killed him,” said Ms Khumalo.
Ms Khumalo said she was devastated that her son who had just completed his studies had found a job and was ready to start his career in accounting died just a few days before commencing employment.
Andile, a former Falcon College pupil left for Canada in 2014 for studies.
The family is seeking assistance in raising CAD15 000 so that they repatriate Andile’s body to Zimbabwe for burial.
“We need funds to bring him back, we need 15 000 Canadian dollars. The problem is that the longer the parlour keeps him, the more debt we incur, so we are hoping to get assistance to raise the funds as soon as possible,” said Ms Khumalo.
The family has set up a Go Fund Me page to try and raise funds and are kindly asking for donations.
They, however, said at this point they do not suspect any foul play since the police found him locked up in his apartment but are awaiting further investigations to be done to clear the mysterious death.
@NyembeziMu
