Klarinet mom sentenced

Zinhle Maditla now knows her fate.

On Friday, September 20 Judge Segopotje Mphahlele sentenced the 25-year-old mother to four life sentences.

The judge said she could not find any reason to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence.

“The most aggravating factor is that the perpetrator is the mother. Their mother was meant to nurture and protect them,” Judge Mphahlele said.

Judge Mphahlele said Maditla betrayed her own children after she had a fight with her boyfriend when she discovered he had another girlfriend.

A week before the sentencing Maditla said she deserves a life sentence for her crime.

Maditla told the court on Tuesday, September 17 that she killed her children on December 27 by feeding them bread that she had laced with poison after she has a fight with her boyfriend.

He was the father of her two youngest children.

Maditla said the fight broke out when she visited her boyfriend at his home and confronted him about not buying food and Christmas clothes for the kids.

She claimed she also found a woman in his room on that day.

It was on her way back to the room she rented in Klarinet that she bought rat poison.

She mixed the poison with atjar, put it on bread and gave it to her children for lunch.

She then mixed the poison with yogurt, smeared it on her breast and breastfed her youngest child.

“When they were hungry, they believed that she will provide for them and when she gave them food, she intentionally gave them food that was contaminated with the intention to kill them,” Judge Mphahlele said.

Maditla was arrested on December 30 last year after she handed herself over to the Vosman Police Station.

This was shortly after the decomposed bodies of Minenhle (8), Blessing (6), Shanique (4) and Ettiene (11 months) were found.