According to police spokesperson, Mahlomola Kareli, the boys, aged 15 and 19, arrived from school on Thursday 1 June 2023. When they got home, they ate the food which was allegedly cooked by their mother. “After a while, they started feeling sick and were taken to a local hospital,” said Kareli. The two boys died in the hospital’s emergency room.  

Kareli added that the woman went home and shortly after her arrival, she also had to be rushed to the hospital as she fell ill with the same symptoms. “Two cases of murder were opened and the woman was arrested while still in hospital. Investigations were launched and are continuing,” he concluded.

ALSO READ: Free State woman sentenced after murdering husband, children

Late in 2022, a 31-year-old woman was sentenced by the Harrismith High Court after she was found guilty of poisoning her husband and two of her daughters. The spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, Phaladi Shuping, said Alina Mokoena prepared breakfast for her family on 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 said the husband of the accused took some of the poisoned soup to work for lunch. He further stated that the accused also took some poisoned soup to her workplace, to eat it. She 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 died 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,” said Shuping.

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. She was further handed an additional 10 years for the attempted murder of the third daughter.  “In her plea agreement, Mokoena, from Farm Tokka in the district of Bethlehem, said their marriage was volatile as she endured abuse from her husband.” 

OFM News