Woman kills self over cheating husband
A 50-YEAR-OLD woman from Bulilima committed suicide by drinking an unknown poisonous chemical because of her husband’s alleged infidelity.
Chief Kandana confirmed the incident which occurred in his area. He said Siphiwe Moyo of Gwambe area drank the poison last Friday and died on Sunday at Plumtree District Hospital where she had been admitted.
Chief Kandana said Moyo left a suicide note stating that she had decided to kill herself because her husband, Manuel Ndalumane, was unfaithful.
“There is a woman from my area who committed suicide by drinking poison after accusing her husband of infidelity. Moyo drank the poison on Friday night and they rushed her to hospital where she died two days later,” he said.
Chief Kandana said Moyo went to her husband’s workplace on Friday night and is suspected to have already drunk the poison as she was breathing with difficulties.
He said Ndalumane talked to his wife, but she did not respond.
“Ndalumane later called their neighbour and told him that his wife was not breathing properly and couldn’t talk.
“Minutes later Moyo’s condition improved and she told their neighbours that she was tired of her husband’s infidelity and she wanted to end her life. Ndalumane and their neighbour then escorted Moyo back to their homestead in order to discuss the matter.
“Along the way Moyo indicated that she wanted to rest for a while and remained behind. She then drank a poisonous liquid that was in a plastic container which worsened her condition,” Chief Kandana said.
He said Moyo was rushed to Sikhathini Clinic and was later referred to Plumtree District Hospital where she later died.
Moyo had a suicide note in her pockets which was addressed to her husband. The note had a message for her husband to remain enjoying life with his girlfriend when she was gone.
Chief Kandana said Moyo also stated that she could not stand her husband’s infidelity anymore.
“It’s saddening that Moyo decided to end her life because of her husband’s reckless behaviour. At the same time it’s important for people who are going through problems to seek counselling services and engage family elders or community leaders because suicide isn’t a solution,” he said.—@DubeMatutu. THE government has urged sex workers to quickly report to medical institutions to be initiated onto the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) programme to ascertain if there is a possibility of exposure to HIV.
PrEP is meant for people who do not have HIV, but are at substantial risk of getting it. Such people take a pill every day to prevent infection.
Speaking in Parliament recently, the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa, said Government is now not just emphasising on prevention as the primary prevention against HIV, but is also promoting PrEP.
The Minister said sex workers who are a key population are encouraged to go onto PrEP as they are at risk.
“Now with Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis what it means is that, those people who are at risk of getting HIV, mostly because of their profession, we are encouraging them to go onto Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, which means we give them treatment or tablets to prevent them from catching HIV should they come into contact with that. This we are actually encouraging very much in terms of our sex workers. So, we are saying to sex workers; Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis is available, especially for our women. So when that happens, it also helps,” he said.
“The second thing is, those who have been exposed, perhaps have been raped and you want to prevent them catching HIV, we encourage Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP). They are available in the country. The centre of that availability is Wilkins Hospital, but we are saying, it is all disseminated to our central and district hospitals so that people can access them. So, if a woman is raped and we are not sure and she is not sure of the status of the man, which is mostly the case, we encourage they get the PEP within 48 hours of being raped. “
He said there is a lot of bureaucracy for one to get PEP services, but his Ministry was trying through its systems to ensure that people get the required services without any hassles.
“I must say it is not talked about very much and so our population do not know much about it and I think we need to have a very vigorous exercise to educate our people about Post-Exposure and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.