Suicides rise among Phikwe women

The town’s station commander, Victor Nlebesi, said police were yet to establish the reasons behind the troubling upsurge this year.

In the latest incident, the woman from Phase 2, in her late 50s disappeared last Tuesday, only for her lifeless body to be discovered hanging from a tree in the bush near the village. “She did not leave a suicide note and investigations are ongoing into the causes behind the suicide. We cannot speculate on the causes at this point,” he said. Nlebesi said the copper and nickel-mining town had never had problems with suicides among women, but this had changed this year.