Pretoria – A Pretoria mother has appeared in the Atteridgeville Magistrate's Court charged with double murder of her two children aged five and eight, the police said on Wednesday.
South African Police Service (SAPS) Gauteng spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said the bodies were burnt beyond recognition when they were found.
“Gauteng police commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela has welcomed the swift unravelling of the double murder of two girls aged between five and eight, after their burnt bodies were found in an abandoned building in Attridgeville, extension 7 on Friday,” said Peters.
“The bodies were burnt beyond recognition and at the time of discovery, the deceased were unknown with little to no information on the circumstances surrounding their gruesome deaths.”
She said a SAPS priority investigation unfolded, owing to the fact that this was a brutal crime committed against minors.
“Within about two days police had valuable information that assisted in determining that the deceased were siblings, and also led to the arrest on Sunday, 07 February 2021, of a 25-year old woman at Stadium Plaza shopping centre in Atteridgeville,” said Peters.
She the mother appeared in court on Tuesday, said the case was remanded to February 15, while she remains in custody.
Last year, the SAPS in Free State opened cases of murder and an inquest after a 29-year-old woman allegedly poisoned her five children and then committed suicide.
Only a six-month-old infant survived but the woman and two of the children died at home while the other two died in hospital.
The incident happened in October, in Phamong village Jesu O Teng.
At the time, Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said allegations were that the woman had a fall-out with her husband, left her marital home and returned to her parents’ home with her children.
“An ambulance was called and the mother, Mangale Mabaso, and children, Pheello Mabaso, nine, and Teboho Mabaso, six, were declared dead at the scene. The other three children were taken to hospital,” he said.
However, two of the surviving children, Mphakiseng Mabaso, eight, and Pule Mabaso, four, later died in hospital.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel