MAKHONZA – Church leaders are usually the first point of reference whenever people encounter problems, but seemingly a cleric from Makhonza did not have anybody to confide in when trouble set in.
The well-known Archbishop Philemon Danda Mkhonta (56), who led the Ekuphileni Church in Zion, apparently took his life on Saturday by ingesting the deadly grain weevil tablet after an earlier attempt to end his life with a gun failed.
Reports are that the respected church leader, who was also employed as a driver at the Shiselweni Regional Health Offices, took the deadly fumigant before driving himself to some maize fields, which are located about 3km away from his homestead.
It is at the maize fields where the clergyman reportedly made a call to one of his brothers, informing him to come and take his body to the mortuary because he was about to die. The family member is said to have rushed to the scene, where his fears were confirmed.
The archbishop was found lying in agony at the back of his van, where he had started to vomit.
A witness said the preacher was then conveyed to a health facility, where he died while receiving treatment.
He was later declared dead by medical personnel.
Many of the people this publication spoke to seemed not to know why exactly the man of the cloth killed himself, as there was no suicide note he left behind.
However, earlier events which included the police and family members could somehow give a pointer of what actually happened, culminating to the tragedy.
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