Former cop who ‘rat-poisoned’ her children blames it on love
A 10-month-old baby boy died but his brother survived after their mother, a former member of the Springs police, allegedly fed them rat poison.
File image for illustration.
Thobile Mbatha is on trial for allegedly poisoning her two sons, leading to the death of one of them.
Mbatha poisoned herself and her two children with rat poison after mixing it with yoghurt.
She appeared at the Gauteng High Court today to give her testimony. Although she did not deny that she poisoned her two sons, aged 10 months and 3 years, she blamed the father of her two sons.
The 29-year-old former police officer from Tsakane said she wanted to take her own life after finding out that the father of her two children was seeing another woman.
She was pregnant with a third child at the time when she found a receipt in his trouser pocket which pointed to a rented room for him and his mistress.
She took rat poison and fed it to her 10-month-old, Mapempeni Madoda, and her 3- year-old son Siyamthanda Junior Mbatha.
Madoda died in hospital and her 3-year-old survived. Thobile has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder.
A Pretoria News report claims there was a possibility that the 10-month-old could have survived the poisoning if the accused had come clean at the hospital.
She cried during her testimony detailing how the man who promised to love her, cheated on her.
In 2016, the Springs Advertiser reported that it was Thobile’s grandmother who found the children and their mother at the house and rushed them to a clinic for treatment.
KwaThema police spokesperson Captain Thabo Sibuyi confirmed yoghurt and poison were mixed.
He said when the boy vomited, the doctor allegedly noticed a black substance in the boys’ vomit.
Thobile, according to police, admitted she poisoned herself. The yoghurt containers were removed from the house to the forensics department for evaluation.
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