Woman Given Four Life Sentences for Killing her Children

Mpumalanga mother Zinhle Maditla has been sentenced to four life terms in prison for the murders of her children.

Judge Segopotje Mphahlele handed down the sentence in the Middelburg Magistrates Court on Friday.

The children died in December last year after the 25-year-old mother fed them rat poison.

Twenty-five-year-old Maditla fed her four children aged between 11 months and 8-years-old rat poison last December after a quarrel with her then-partner and father of two of the kids.

Judge Mphahlele said what was most disturbing was that the murders took place in a home which was supposed to be a haven.

“And 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.”

She said life in prison for each of the children was the only suitable sentence.

“Under the circumstances, I am of the considered view that life imprisonment on each of the murder counts is the appropriate sentence,” she added.