Pretoria – The 27-year-old mother of the two children found dead in a shack at Stinkwater near Hammanskraal last week handed herself over to the police on Sunday morning.
The mother of the boys, aged seven and two, arrived at the police station around 5:30am. She faces two counts of murder and will appear in the Moretele Magistrate’s Court soon.
“When speaking to the police in the holding cells, she alleged that she had used rat poison to kill her children."
“She indicated that she also attempted to kill herself by eating the poison,” said police spokesperson Constable Herman Moremi.
There was an uproar in the community last Sunday when the father of the children arrived at the home. He had received a call from the woman, telling him the children were all alone at home.
The mother had said she was in Limpopo.
He forcefully entered the shack with the help of the woman’s relatives and found both children lying lifeless in bed. Rat poison was found next to the bed.
The mother told the police that she poured the poison into their food during breakfast that morning. The children then ate the meal, Moremi said.
The woman was surprised to survive the poison and subsequently decided to run away to Bela Bela in Limpopo, where she hid for two days, and also went to Ramotse village in Temba, also near Hammanskraal.
After hearing on the radio that her children had been found dead in the shack, and that she was suspected of murdering them, she went to her brother at Eersterus on Saturday night.
Family members then advised her to hand herself in to the police and later accompanied her to Temba police station.