A 35-year-old man was saved from certain death after he climbed the roof of Bulawayo’s tallest building and threatened to jump off.
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the incident. She said:
Security guards at the building alerted the Fire Brigade and they managed to rescue him. Police arrived at the scene after Banda had already been sent to the hospital.
The suicidal man was identified as Andrew Banda of Balfour Road in Bellevue.
He climbed the roof of the 110-meter high (360ft) National Railways of Zimbabwe building, a company he works for.
Before the attempted suicide, Banda had reportedly complained that his salary was not enough to buy anything.
My heart bleeds for the plight of poorly paid NRZ lower end workers. It is shocking that top managers at the national rail haulage company earn their over-rated salaries in US dollars while low end workers get a pittance that will hardly buy 10kgs mealie meal, a loaf of bread and a packet of sugar. There’s talk that top management at the railways are behind the stalling of resuscitation efforts at the company because they know that they will be the first victims of a staff shake-up and thereby stand to lose their exorbitant wage packages and the extravagant lifestyles that they’ve become accustomed to.