Zinhle Maditla appeared in Witbank Magistrate’s Court earlier this week where she was initially expected to make a formal bail application.
Instead her defence lawyer, Jabulani Maphete, from Legal Aid South Africa, said he decided not to proceed with the bail application because after consulting with the accused he came to the conclusion that she does not seem to be in a good state of mind.
Mapethe submitted an application to the Witbank Magistrate’s Court for the 24-year-old mother to be referred to a psychiatric institution for mental evaluation on Monday, January 14.
State prosecutor Johan Harmse agreed to the application and Magistrate Daleen Venter granted the request.
Maditla is referred to a psychiatric institution in Ermelo for 30 days.
The case was postponed to February 14 for the presentation of the psychiatric report.
Maditla had her head and face covered in a piece of a cloth when she entered the courtroom.
Venter asked her to remove the cloth.
She did but still covered the right side of her face with her hand while seated in the dock in order to block the view of the media cameras.
Maditla is accused of killing her four children in Klarinet late December.
She allegedly called her family members informing them to go and check at her house in Klarinet.
There they were met by a gruesome scene where dead bodies of the children were wrapped in blankets inside the house.
She handed herself over to police on December 30.
Maditla’s family were there to support her.
Mr Kevin Balance, grandfather of the four children said the family is standing by Maditla, “She looked very distraught in court today. We are trying to understand why she did what she did. As a family we will support Zinhle.”
The Provincial Commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lt Gen Mondli Zuma condemned the incidents of poisoning that seems to be rearing its ugly head after it was reported that another mother apparently poisoned three of her children in Moroka, Gauteng and ran to hide at Vosman.
Two of the children died while one survived.
She was later arrested and taken back to Gauteng where the incident had occurred.
