Mourners who attended the sombre funeral service of an 18-year-old girl, Kaya Mabasa, who alledgedly took her life after being mistakenly told that she had failed her Grade 12 exams for the second time, were told to intensify the fight against the plague of teenage suicide like the country is doing in fighting HIV/Aids and for women’s rights.

Kaya of Mudavula village outside Malamulele could not accept the news that she had failed for the second time and she used her uncle´s fire-arm to take her life.

Addressing mourners during the funeral, Ronald Muthambi, an EPC church representative, of which Kaya was a member, said the scourge of teenage suicide had reached alarming proportions both locally and internationally. Muthambi made an urgent call to Government, communities, churches and NGOs to double their efforts and fight the scourge with the same vigour that they are fighting Aids.

He said the country was losing its future leaders through teenage suicides. He said teenage suicides have come to be accepted as the only way out by teenagers with problems. Muthambi, who is also a well-known prosecutor, said statistics are there to prove that teenage suicide is a problem both nationally and internationally.

He said teenagers who approached Grade 12 needed everyone to be close to them, so as to give them the most needed advice and counselling for their problems.

A family member, Annah Khosa, said they had lost a jolly person who did not display any signs of stress. "She had naturally bonded with the family and she looked after our elderly parents while we are away in Gauteng," she said sadly. She said Kaya would be missed and would always be remembered as a good girl. The principal of John Mbedle High School where she studied said it was a deadly mistake for people to start rumours that she had failed even before all her results had been received. He said the girl’s results for the exams were still pending, so it was a mistake to say she had passed or failed.

Kaya was buried at Mudavula at the weekend.