According to the spokesperson of the Free State National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Phaladi Shuping, 31-year-old Alina Mokoena prepared breakfast for her family on the morning of 22 June 2022, five days after buying rat poison. She poured the sachet of poison into a pot of bean soup and served her three children before they went to school. 

Shuping adds that the husband of the accused took some of the poisoned soup to work for lunch. He further states that the accused also took some poisoned soup to her workplace, with the intention of eating it. She, however, was not able to eat it because her sister was present.

“Teachers called Mokoena to the school after the three children fainted and were transported to the clinic. Portia and Meikie passed on at the clinic and Lerato was admitted to the ICU section of the Pherong District Hospital, where she recovered. The husband also fell ill at work, and he was rushed to the Dihlabeng Regional Hospital, but he too died due to the intake of the poisoned soup,” says Shuping.

Shuping explains that the State Prosecutor, Advocate Dansi Mpemvane, requested the court to impose a hefty term of direct imprisonment on the accused in the interest of society. The families of the deceased also demand that such a crime be given a fitting punishment to deter others from committing such offences and to punish the accused for her actions.

Mokoena was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment on the three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder and an additional 10 years for attempted murder. Shuping says on 31 October 2022, Judge Pitso Molitsoane found Mamphepi Alina Mokoena guilty of the murder of her 49-year-old husband, Frans Pamplin, and two daughters, the 14-year-old Mamsy Pamplin and 10-year-old Meiki Mokoena. She was further handed an additional 10 years for the attempted murder of the third daughter, Lerato Mokoena.  

“In her plea agreement, Alina Mokoena, from Farm Tokka in the district of Bethlehem, said that their marriage was volatile as she endured abuse from her husband. She went to town on 17 June 2022 to buy a poison known as Temic, and told her sister, who was with her, that she was buying it to poison rats at their house,” Shuping states.

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