What could ever cause a mother to kill her children?
A Pretoria woman decided to do it to “save” them from living a life without their mother because she intended to kill herself too. She tried but was unsuccessful.
Lehlogonolo Mary Bokaba (29) killed her children by hanging them in 2022 because of the state of her relationship with her husband.
When handing down the sentence, Judge Mashudu Munzhelele found that there were substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years because Lehlogonolo did not waste the court's time, she pleaded guilty, and she was a first-time offender.
Furthermore, the judge said Lehlogonolo committed the offences under emotional distress. She also made a plea that information should be made available to help women who feel they don’t have a way out.
The little girls, two months and eight-years-old, were found by Lehlogonolo’s mother-in-law.
She pleaded guilty.
“Lehlogonolo was in a love relationship with the father of the 2-month-old baby and was staying with him in his back room in his parent’s backyard. While the two were still in a relationship, she discovered that the husband was continuously cheating on her, and he was also not assisting her with the children,” the Pretoria High Court heard.
“I decided to leave my husband and called my mother to help me move on 14 May 2022. But when I woke up, I felt overwhelmed with the state of my relationship with my husband and decided to kill myself and my children by hanging them with a cord to save them from the consequence of growing up without a mother,” her plea statement read in part.
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After hanging and killing the children, she attempted to take her own life by suicide by also hanging herself but was unsuccessful. She then untied the children, placed them on the bed. Then she miss-called her mother-in-law.
It was evidence in court that the incident was discovered by the mother-in-law after received a missed call from Lehlogonolo and she had not gone to her in-law’s house to prepare food for the children.
When the mother-in-law went to the backroom to check, she found the bodies of the children on top of the bed. Police were called and Lehlogonolo was arrested and has been in custody since.
She has been sentenced to 10 years' direct imprisonment for each of the murders. The sentences will run concurrently.
