Mpho Makwela was on drugs and staying on the streets for years when he was told his mother had passed away last month. The family managed to get him back home before her funeral and as soon as he got home, one of his aunts got him arrested for stealing her stove in March this year. This is the decision that will haunt the family forever. Mpho by the Attredgeville police on July 21 and that was the last time he was seen alive. He allegedly committed suicide inside police holding cells a day before his mother’s burial.

ALLEGED SUICIDE ON POLICE WATCH 

The family told ZiMoja that when they went to check on Mpho on Friday, the day before his mother’s funeral, and also to ask if he can attend her funeral, they were turned back and told to come back on a Monday. Later on the very same day, they were called by the police who said he committed suicide inside the police holding cells using a hoodie string. Rose Makwela, the sister to Mpho, Rose Makwela said as a family, they have so many questions with no answers. She asked how her brother could have died under the police’s watch. "What’s heartbreaking is that the police are not telling us much. They didn’t even have the audacity to come to our family home to tell us about his death, instead, we had to go there ourselves to check on him and they still lied and told us later on the phone without explaining exactly how he died," she said. Makwela added that the police also refused to show the family the cell he allegedly committed suicide at. "As a family, we don’t have a closure, we know he was smoking drugs, he was out of line and causing problems for other people but they should have done things the right way. We were going to have closure."

CONTRADICTING STATEMENT 

Makwela said police and government mortuary staff told them contradictory information on the circumstances around Mpho’s death. "Police told us he hanged himself but when we went to the mortuary, we were told he was killed by the butler door which’ confused us even more," She said Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) only visited them on Thursday just to give them the case number and said nothing about investigating the matter. IPID National spokesperson Robbie Raburabu said they are investigating the matter. " IPID is aware of the incident and busy investigating the circumstances surrounding the death," he said.