Mom who murdered her four kids with rat poison to be sentenced on Friday
Johannesburg - Sentencing in the case of a Mpumalanga mother who murdered her four children will be handed down on Friday, September 20.
Zinhle Maditla, 25, was expected to hear her fate on Tuesday, however, Judge Sheila Mphahlele said she has to apply her mind to the evidence put before her before handing down the sentence.
During the proceedings on Tuesday, Maditla pleaded for leniency, saying betrayal and heartbreak drove her to commit the four murders.
Maditla was found guilty of four counts of murder after she gave her four children, Minenhle, 8, Blessing, 7, Shaniqua, 3 and 11-month-old Ethen, rat poison.
Maditla, who had pleaded guilty to the crimes, said during the trial that she had a fight with her boyfriend after finding out he was cheating on her when he went to his house and found him with another woman.
According to Maditla, the father attacked her after she confronted him.
She said she was distraught and bought poison she used to try and kill herself and the children.
The children's decomposed bodies were found on December 30 in their home in Klarinet, Mpumalanga and Maditla later handed herself to the police.
Maditla was sent for mental evaluation at the beginning of the trial and the psychiatric assessment showed that she was extremely angry when she killed the children.
She bought the poison for R10 and put it in the food of her three older kids.
For the baby, Maditla mixed the poison with yoghurt and smeared it on her breast which then killed baby Ethen as he latched on to the nipple to breastfeed.
Maditla then went on a drinking spree after poisoning the children and lied about their whereabouts when asked where they were.
Two days later, she gave the father of the youngest children the keys to the room in which the children lay dead, telling him she was going away and that she had locked them inside.
However, she did not tell him that she had fed the children poison.
The children were discovered when flies were seen around the room.
Maditla's family broke the door and made the gruesome discovery of the four decomposed bodies.