Pretoria – A Pretoria east businesswoman and wife of a prominent psychiatrist is facing two charges of murder after she allegedly shot her two sons dead in April 2015.
But she blamed her actions on the consumption of a host of tablets and energy supplements and said their side effects caused the tragedy.
Rehithile Katlego Matjane, 34, pleaded not guilty to murdering Alvaro, 2, and Keyondre, 6, on April 17, 2015.
They both died from bullet wounds to the head.
She did not deny that she had shot the children in her luxury car, parked in a deserted spot in Hammanskraal at the time, but said she could not be held accountable for her actions.
“I would never intentionally hurt my beloved children, and even when I experienced extreme suicidal thoughts, I did not ever consider to harm or kill them,” she said in a statement to court.
Matjane, the wife of Dr Maxwell Matjane, said she remembered nothing about the events of that day.
The well-dressed woman on Monday blamed the entire episode on the side effects of medication she had taken two days prior to the incident, and again shortly before she allegedly killed her children.
She said that apart from taking the medication because of excruciating headaches, it had to be borne in mind that she was on her menstruation cycle while consuming the medication.
The police found the bodies of the children at a deserted spot on premises that formerly belonged to the SA National Defence Force.
Reginah van Rooyen lives on a smallholding close to the area where the car with the children inside was found. She said she was home in the late afternoon when she suddenly saw a woman standing outside her window.
“I asked her what she wanted and she said, in a loud voice, that she wanted a bullet. I said I did not have a bullet.
"She then asked for a knife because she had to kill herself. I told her I could not give her a knife and she said she would kill herself on the N1 highway just behind my house.”
Van Rooyen said while she was phoning the police she noticed that the woman, who was foaming at the mouth, had run away.
She went after her and caught her as she tried to climb the wall leading to the highway.
“I pulled her back and tried to calm her down until the police arrived. I asked her what the problem was and she said she had just shot her children, but she did not have bullets left to shoot herself.
“She said she fired one shot at the little one and two at the older child.”
According to Van Rooyen, the woman explained that her husband had another woman and she feared he would give her children to that woman.
But according to Matjane’s explanation of plea, she and her husband were happily married. They were still together, and as recently as January they had a baby daughter.
“I deny that during the commission of the crimes I was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of my actions or act accordingly.
"My plea is one of sane automatism due to a short lasting psychotic depressive episode with suicide trends. These are the result of side effects of medication."
She explained that she suffered from severe headaches and took medication, while she did not eat breakfast. At lunchtime she consumed a glass of red wine with a sandwich, drunk a Red Bull and ate an energy bar.
On top of this, she said, she also had protein shakes, muscle building supplements and various vitamins on the day of the incident and in the two days leading up to the day of the incident.
Various experts will be called to testify on her behalf and explain the side effects of all these substances, claimed to have caused her short term amnesia.
The State, on the other hand, will also call its experts to refute this.
(Proceeding)