Mother arrested for trying to suffocate twins
A 20-year-old Mozambican mother who allegedly tried to suffocate her three week-old twins by placing them inside a black rubbish bag following a domestic tiff with her boyfriend has been arrested and charged with attempted murder by the Katlehong SAPS.
Maria Mashaba, a Mozambican immigrant who lives in Nhlapo Section, in Katlehong, with her live-in lover, Eugene Sigauke, made her first appearance on a charge of attempted murder at the Palm Ridge Regional Court on Tuesday, October 13.
She pleaded not guilty and the case was postponed to October 26, pending further investigations by the police while the twins have been removed to a place of safety.
During an interview with Kathorus MAIL, Sigauke explained how around February this year, he had sent for his girlfriend and mother of his two-year-old twins, Maria, who was living with his family in Mozambique to join him with the children in South Africa.
“I had not been working for almost two years, and after I found a job, I sent for Maria to join me in South Africa with the two children,” he said.
“As arranged, Maria and the children arrived in Katlehong, where I was renting a back-room in Nhlapo Section.”
Sigauke said he was happy to see his girlfriend with the children, but said little did he know that she was already two-months pregnant.
And it was not long before rumours started circulating in the small Mozambican community in the area about Maria and her steadily bulging tummy.
Sigauke explained he was informed by some close female relatives and friends from Mozambique in the area, that Maria was in fact pregnant.
“I did not want to entertain the rumour because I loved her. And as the rumour about her pregnancy continued to persist, I finally sat her down and questioned her about what I had heard and she denied the rumour as just that, a rumour”, said the visibly traumatised young man.
On the morning of September 8, when Maria experienced labour pains, Sigauke says he questioned her again about the pregnancy.
“And again, she insisted that I was responsible for the pregnancy. I then asked my landlord to call an ambulance to take Maria to hospital while I remained home with our twins,” he said.
Maria again gave birth to twins on September 8, and the rumour about Sigauke not being the father of the newly-born babies continued.
“On October 10, three weeks after the babies were born, I again asked Maria about the twins, because both of them looked normal to me and not premature and it was then that we had a tiff and while I sat on the bed talking to someone else on my phone, she must have pulled a black garbage bag from under a pile of blankets and placed the two small babies inside without me noticing her,” Sigauke explained.
Realising that the two newly-born twins were not on the bed, Sigauke, said he asked Maria if the children were asleep and she did not reply.
“It was then that I stood up from where I was seated on the bed and looked over her shoulder and noticed a black garbage bag on the floor and that there was movement inside it. The bag was tied and the two children inside were kicking and moving. I quickly untied the bag and pulled the babies out”, Sigauke explained.
The Katlehong police were later summoned to the shack by Sigauke’s older brother and Maria was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of her babies.
Confirming Maria Mashaba’s arrest, SAPS spokesperson, Capt Mega Ndobe, told Kathorus MAIL that the suspect was currently detained at Johannesburg Prison, known as “Sun City”, and confirmed she would appear in court again on October 26.
