When gospel musician Richard Nhika walked into The Chronicle newsroom in November last year many wouldn’t have thought from his demeanour that he was a troubled man. Two months later, Nhika shot a two-minute video of himself committing suicide in a bush near Goodhope suburb in Harare.
After consuming a poisonous substance believed to be cotton pesticide sometime this week, according to our sister paper H-Metro yesterday, Nhika who was now an Apostolic Faith Mission junior pastor was taken to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals where he died on the following day.
From evidence gathered from the video, the 38-year-old man of cloth took away his life over a misunderstanding with his girlfriend only identified as Nomatter.
However, all seemed to be hunky dory for Nhika in November as he spoke with a beaming smile and a soft voice about his new gospel offering, Chivindi (Courage), his life and his ministry.
Explaining the title of the album, Nhika said: “It’s an appeal to people who have the guts (Chivindi) to practise witchcraft ritual killings and live with snakes.”
While Nhika had his own explanation for the title, the recent episode of his life seems to suggest that he had already gathered the guts to end his life, which was his third attempt.
The first attempt was in 2009 when he broke up with a woman and that left him devastated.
“My brother I had committed to someone for about two years and we broke up. This was after I paid lobola for her and thereafter things went down the drain.
“I don’t understand what happened because I wanted to marry her. I was so heartbroken it took me time to recover from the whole issue,” Nhika told Chronicle Showbiz then.
“I nearly committed suicide after that. I drank some poison and luckily I was rushed to hospital. However, the poison damaged some of my organs.
“A splenectomy was done as a result. I was heartbroken. I was saved by the grace of God as He didn’t let me die. I lived and I live for a higher calling.”
When he was asked to reveal the identity of the woman, Nhika refused saying: “It’s all in the past. One day I’ll get married. I don’t want to drag her through the mud but she was and still is a good person. I’m optimistic that I’ll get married one day.”
The second according to sources was in 2015, after having an undisclosed misunderstanding with some members of his family.
“He tried to commit suicide after having a row with family members. However, he was overpowered by them and they took away the substance and he eventually calmed down,” said the source.
Nhika revealed at that time, that God had taken a hold of his life and he was ready to turn a new leaf and wanted to minister to the masses through Chivindi. At that time many thought Nhika was trying to use his misfortune and embellish it to gain mileage.
However, his recovery from the heartbreak seemed not to have been complete in light of the way he took his life this week.
Maybe Nomatter is the mysterious woman who he claimed broke his heart more than eight years ago and they decided to get back together. Maybe Nomatter is a different woman and because he had not fully healed from the first break up, that an argument triggered the suicidal chords leading him to record the video while committing suicide. Only Nhika will know unless the Nomatter comes out clean. The Chronicle
