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Just a few weeks ahead of the 2018 final examinations and more reports are coming in of students taking their own lives at institutions of higher learning.
On Wednesday night City Press was alerted to the death of another student at the University of the Witwatersrand after he jumped off a building in the Johannesburg CBD.
Many of his peers took to social media in shock and described “ordinary” encounters with him over the past few weeks.
He was remembered as a student leader and an ambitious entrepreneur by his friends.
His death comes after two other suicides at Wits University this year.
And it was not the only incident on the night as a female Wits student tried to take her life at the university’s Junction residence. She was rushed to hospital.
There were 23 attempted suicides at the University of Pretoria this year alone, which led to about 100 students from the university silently marching across the main campus, calling on the institution to beef up their mental healthcare facilities.
The students said these facilities were insufficient to cater for all students and staff.
The news also came on the back of the untimely death of Jabulani Tsambo, better known by his stage name Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP).
The death of the star, who was assumed to be “fine” shocked South Africans who took to social media to discuss “how real depression was” and calling on people to check on their loved ones.
Last month, City Press looked into the mental health of students in institutions of higher learning, with many students remarking that they felt the mechanisms in place at these institutions – such as counselling and mediums to bring awareness about mental health – were not effective in helping students deal with the pressures they faced.
They cited the pressures at home where family members expected them to not only qualify and become employed, but also to send money and food whilst they study.
Wits University spokesperson Buhle Zuma told City Press that the university realised that more needed to be done by the institution as well as the need for a collective effort from society.
“We are trying, through increasing capacity at CCDU (Counselling and Careers Development Unit) through creating new hotlines, through staff identifying students at risk, through residence programs and social media, to address issues related to mental health, but we clearly need to do more.
We are convening a specialist group of psychologists and psychiatrists to advise on how we can better service our students in need and especially how we can reach those who require counselling, but who do not reach out for it.
But we cannot do it alone – we need to pull together as members of society to look out for one another, to encourage those in despair to seek and to provide hope”.
If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact Suicide Crisis Line on 0800 567 567, Sadag Mental Health Line on 011 234 4837 or 24 hour Helpline on 0800 12 13 14
