Mom gets a life sentence for poisoning her baby
Martha Mthimunye (29) prepared porridge, in which she placed rat poison before feeding the baby and herself. She later rushed the baby to the clinic, where the infant was declared dead.
The Evander Regional Court sentenced Martha Mthimunye (29) from eMbalenhle to life imprisonment on November 14 for killing her baby. The court found Mthimunye guilty of poisoning her 10-month-old son with rat poison last December.
When delivering her sentence, Magistrate Charmaine la Marque said Mthimunye, who is the mother of four children, pleaded guilty to poisoning her infant.
Mthimunye prepared porridge, in which she placed rat poison before feeding the baby and herself. She later rushed the baby to the clinic, where the infant was declared dead.
Mthimunye was then also rushed to the Evander Hospital after she fell ill. She was later charged with murder. La Marque said Mthimunye’s sentence should send a message to the community that such crimes are harshly punishable by the state because no one has a right to take someone else’s life.
“You were supposed to take care of your baby, and should not have done what you did. What makes this case worse is you had planned the whole thing.
“You said you did it out of frustration because there was no food in your house because of issues between you and the deceased child’s father.
“I do not take that as exceptional circumstances because you receive child support grants and maintenance money for the other children.
“Their granny, your mother, will take care of all your children, so to send you directly to prison will not affect them,” said La Marque.
La Marque said a person should get a punishment equal to what he or she did.
The magistrate called Mthimunye out for putting poison in the food and not seeking help when the child started crying after his feed.
La Marque said Mthimunye sought help only when the poison made her ill. Mthimunye has a prior conviction of theft. She looked sad after hearing the sentence and pleaded with the magistrate.
Mthimunye lamented that she needed to sort out a problem with the maintenance of one of her other children, but the magistrate said the children’s court would take care of it and assist the grandmother.
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