Mental health at UFH prioritized after string of murders and deaths

This follows the death of a second Law student in less than one week.

The 23-year-old final year LLB student Nosicelo Mtebeni was brutally murdered, allegedly by her partner while the lastest death was an apparent suicide after a student fell from a high rise building.

Details of the apparent suicide are still under investigation.

It has been a difficult mental journey for students from UFH where an unprecedented number of students have died over the last two years by either suicide, accidents or murder.

In the 2019 academic year, 13 UFH students died including a first-year Library and Information Science student, 20-year-old Sibahle Mkiva who drowned in a swimming pool at the Alice campus.

Another four students died on the Alice campus in 2020.

In February, the 24-year-old MSc Geology student Yoneli Boli was stabbed to death by a female student. His close friend and fellow student 30-year-old Olwethu Tshefu was murdered on the day of Boli's funeral.

In March, students were rocked by another murder on the Alice campus when a third-year student, Siphumle Nazo was hit over the head with an iron bar.

In September, a second-year BCom student Kabelo Sobogile was found dead in his room in Alice and a day later another student Bokang Makhaoli died of pneumonia.

UFH Acting Head of Department of Student Unit, Thobeka Msengana admitted to gender-based violence and mental health crisis at the institution and pointed it out as a national crisis that should be addressed both at primary and tertiary levels.

“The University has committed to prioritising mental health and GBV. The implementation of the GBV policy is taking place to address related matters and the Counselling Unit has a lot of preventative programmes in place to address student mental health-related matters and will continue to work closely with higher health to provide psychological support to students” she said.