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Another Eastern Cape woman has allegedly killed her children before taking her own life at the weekend.
According to Colonel Pricilla Naidoo, four children, aged between four and 14 years old, were asleep with their grandmother and mother on Monday when they were awakened by their mother asking them to accompany her for prayer in another room.
The children were, however, taken to a forest in Luzuphu in Lusikisiki, where they were allegedly forced to drink life-threatening pills. The 14-year-old child resisted and managed to run away.
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The child called for help, and police were notified of the situation. However, on arrival, they found only the bodies of the children.
On Tuesday morning, the Grahamstown Search and Rescue Unit found the mother about 100m from the children in dense bushes.
Police are investigating a case of murder and an Inquest.
Preliminary investigation suggests that poverty may have been a motivating factor for the incident.
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This comes just a month after another mother of three allegedly murdered her children before talking her own life in the same province.
At the time, police said while the motive for the killings was unknown, it was suspected that it was driven by poverty.
Last November, also in the same province, police opened four murder cases after four children were found bludgeoned to death allegedly by their mother at KuMhlabubomvu, in the Engcobo Local Municipality.
Police spokesperson Tembinkosi Kinana said the bodies of the four children were found in the rondavel where they were sleeping with their 31-year-old mother.
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“Preliminary investigation reveals that they had been assaulted by their own mother with a sledge hammer. Consequently, they suffered serious injuries to the upper bodies,” said Kinana then.
The woman was arrested and detained on murder charges.