Families seek answers after spate of suicides at Ivory Park high school

JOHANNESBURG - The Nombinja family is in a race against time to find at least R36,000 required to pay undertakers if they are to bury Thandeka by Sunday.

The family has been left reeling by the nineteen-year-old’s death by suicide on Sunday.

She is one of four pupils from Eqinisweni Secondary School in Ivory Park to end their lives in this way in the past two weeks.

It’s left the community with many questions.

All the Nombinja family have for possible clues as to why Thandeka ended her life is a TikTok video she posted on Sunday - hours before her death.

The Grade 12 pupil is understood to have ingested poison. She was found at home by her siblings and died on the way to hospital.

Thandeka and her two brothers lost their parents in 2011 and 2012.

Those tragedies left the two older siblings to try and raise their younger sister, who wanted to be an artist, with the help of extended family.

The Gauteng Education department has expressed alarm at the four suicides at Eqinisweni Secondary School.

They have also offered support to both the school and families as police investigate the matters.

A shocked community has been left to speculate why four teenagers, three girls and one boy, would do this.

The community and Thandeka’s family have made a plea to government to get to the bottom of what could have led to the four deaths.

Thandeka will be buried on Sunday in Ivory Park, with separate funeral arrangements for the other three pupils.