Police in Emalahleni are investigating four counts of murder after a 24-year-old mother of four, Zinhle Maditla called family members informing them to go and check at her house in Klarinet on Sunday.

According to police, they were met by a gruesome scene where bodies of her four children aged between 11 months and eight years were wrapped in blankets.

The mother and her children were last seen on December 26 where all seemed well at the time. She handed herself to the police and appeared before the Witbank Magistrate’s Court yesterday I’m absentia. The case was postponed to January 7.