By Songeziwe Mapukata
“Is it really me who has done this to my babies?”
These are the words of a 32-year-old mother who allegedly bludgeoned her four children to death with a sledgehammer sometime during Tuesday night.
She was arrested after the gruesome discovery was made on Wednesday morning.
The mother appeared to have been living a normal life with her husband raising her four children, Lizalise, 11, Inganathi, 9, Othalive, 5, and two-year-old Elihle in their home at Tsalaba Village outside Engcobo, in the Eastern Cape.
Her family said although she has a history of battling with mental illness, they thought those days were long gone.
A neighbour said he was not aware of any possible violence in the family’s history.
According to the neighbour, both parents are unemployed and live on the social grants of the four children and the little money earned by their father through odd jobs in the community.
He told Scrolla.Africa that all hell broke loose when the two oldest children had a physical altercation the previous day after school.
Fearing that his father would beat him up, Lizalise refused to go into the house until later that evening.
This triggered a response from their mother who says her children were being mistreated by her husband.
“My children in this home are not treated well at all. Maybe they are better off dead as I will be dead too,” the neighbour told Scrolla.Africa.
In the wake of this tragedy, Patrick Langa, a principal from Gulandoda Primary School where two of the four victims had been learners, said he arrived at the scene at 7am on Wednesday after being informed of their murder.
Langa says the third child attended a local creche and the last born would stay at home with the mother.
On Wednesday, the community members flocked to the family home. Men gathered by the kraal and women and children in the main hut, shocked by the tragic news.
Staff members from Gulandoda Primary School also visited the home.
Pictured above: Tsalaba Villagers
Image source: Supplied
