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…youth pleads hunger as he opens
barber at home
Livingstone
Mtetwa
CHIPINGE
– A 20-year-old man recently tried to kill himself by swallowing rate poison after his 72-year-old granny reported
him to the police for violating Covid-19 national lockdown regulations and
exposing the whole family to the coronavirus.
Egness Manyundwa disagreed with her grandson Sydney
Kwazvo after he began to run a barbershop at home which the granny felt would
increase the family’s chances of getting infected by the virus.
Manyundwa did not want Kwazvo to run the home barber
shop as it would see many people coming to the homestead haircuts.
Manyundwa
is said to have contacted the police to come and arrest his grandson for
breaching Covid-19 regulations by gathering many people at their homestead therefore
risking the whole family to the deadly virus.
Liberty,
a younger brother to Sydney, confirmed the incident and said his brother had
many arguments with their grandmother for quite some time.
“Our
brother had opened a barbershop at Manyundwa’s place of residence. However, our
grandmother reported him to the authorities and he was arrested for violating
lockdown regulations,” said Liberty.
Liberty
accused Manyundwa of abuse, saying she had since stopped giving them food and had
ordered them to fend for themselves.
“Our
parents died and we came to stay with our grandmother. Our grandmother treated
us like animals and stopped giving us food.
“We
are three in our family and Sydney tried by all means to provide food for us.
At one moment he started selling firewood but our grandmother stopped the
project.
“Sydney
then started a barbershop at home and again out grandmother was against the
idea. She said no people should come at home during the Covid-19 period because
it exposed us to danger. We agree with that but we have to survive since she
does not give us food,” said Liberty.
Sydney
is said to disobeyed his grandmother and proceeded with his project, forcing
the old granny to call the police on him.
After
being released from police custody on February 10, Sydney is said to have
consumed rate poison in a bid to end his life.
It
is alleged that around15:00hrs, Sydney wrote a suicidal text message to a
family friend who then alerted his younger brothers. After failing to get a
hold of him, a search team of six friends was quickly mobilized and they found
Sydney at Gaza Stadium foaming on the mouth.
He was quickly rushed to Chipinge General Hospital
for medical attention.
