{"id":101934,"date":"2019-09-17T12:26:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T10:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=101934"},"modified":"2019-09-17T18:05:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T16:05:36","slug":"mother-admits-murdering-children-testifies-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2019\/09\/17\/mother-admits-murdering-children-testifies-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother who admits to murdering her children testifies in court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zinhle Maditla was arrested on 30 December 2018, after handing herself over to the police, when the decomposing bodies of her four minors were found in a room she was renting.<br \/>\nThe mother had made a full confession of murdering her two boys and two girls, Minenhle (8), Blessing (6), Shanique (4) and Ettiene (11 months) by feeding them rat poison.<\/p>\n<p>During her testimony, Maditla explained to the judge how the murders of her children unfolded.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_101567\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101567\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-101567\" src=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/Klarinet-4-Copy-418x418-418x418-Copy-520x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/Klarinet-4-Copy-418x418-418x418-Copy-520x400.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/Klarinet-4-Copy-418x418-418x418-Copy-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-101567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Witbank News.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The mother described how on the day of the crime, she had gone to confront the father of her youngest two children, for not buying them any Christmas presents.<br \/>\nDuring the confrontation, she made the discovery that another woman was in his bedroom.<\/p>\n<p>The court further heard how, on her way home, she had noticed a stall selling rat poison.<\/p>\n<p>She purchased the poison and then went home where she mixed it with food she had prepared for herself and the children.<\/p>\n<p>Her testimony further explained how two hours later, the children complained of a headache and she encouraged them to sleep as she left to buy aspirin.<br \/>\nUpon her return, she had found that her children were no longer breathing.<\/p>\n<p>The family broke down in court after Maditla apologized to her mother and the fathers of her children.<br \/>\nShe added that she wanted to spend the rest of her life in prison for what she had done.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_101563\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101563\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-101563\" src=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/court-Copy-520x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/court-Copy-520x400.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2019\/09\/court-Copy-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-101563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Zinhle Maditla family leaving court.<br \/>Ntomfuthi Maditla, Mathilda Mahlangu and Kevin Balance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More information on her sentencing will follow at a later stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 24 year-old mother from Klarinet, who confessed to murdering her four children, has appeared in the Middelburg High Court today, where she is currently testifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8164,"featured_media":101564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Tiisetso Malunga","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[20839,20841,20842,10010,12898,20840,10333,20625],"class_list":["post-101934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-klarinet-mother-in-court","tag-klarinet-mother-sentencing","tag-klarinet-mother-testifies-about-murders-in-court","tag-local-news","tag-middelburg-news","tag-mother-confesses-to-poisoning-four-children","tag-trusted-news","tag-zinhle-maditla"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["klarinet mother in court","klarinet mother sentencing","klarinet mother testifies about murders in court","local news","middelburg news","mother confesses to poisoning four children","trusted news","Zinhle Maditla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}