Showing posts with label Seoka(Mapaseka). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seoka(Mapaseka). Show all posts

Sunday, 5 June 2011

FILICIDE (attempted): South Africa: Seipati Thekisho pleads guilty to attempted murder

May 31 2011 8:08AM
Zinhle Mapumulo   
The Soweto woman accused of stabbing her nine-year-old daughter eight times a week ago was denied bail at the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Seipati Thekisho, 36, pleaded guilty to attempted murder but said she was possessed when she stabbed her daughter, Thato. The case was postponed to Friday for further investigation.
Thekisho’s mother, Mantoa Raphala, is still baffled as to why her daughter tried to kill her granddaughter.
Family members who were in court yesterday refused to speak to the media, saying the incident was still too fresh in their minds.
Thato is in hospital in a stable condition.
Thekisho is not the first woman to have attempted to murder her own flesh and blood.
Recently, a woman from Garankuwa poisoned her one-year-old child with Blue Death rat poison. The 37 year old told the police she could not support the baby on her own and decided to kill him.
In April, Mapaseka Seoka, 28, was sentenced to 12 years in jail after she pleaded guilty to killing her nine-day-old daughter, Ditlhoriso, in 2008. Half of the sentence was suspended for five years on condition she is not convicted of assault, abuse or killing a child.
Seoka was initially charged with killing her two children, 14-month-old son Lebohang and Ditlhoriso. But the charges against her for the murder of Lebohang were provisionally withdrawn pending further investigation.
Like most mothers who kill their children, Seoka told the court she was forced to do it because she could not support her children as their father abandoned them.
Psychologists have expressed concern about this growing “killer mum syndrome”. “It is all fair and equal under the law that the women be prosecuted but we must remember that there is more to this,” said Lynda Maurice, a clinical psychologist.
“It is no using hauling them before courts when we are not digging for the reasons behind this inhumane act. No mother in the right state of mind would murder her own child.
“When this happens, it signals fear, depression and state of hopelessness.”
Lucy Holborn of the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said absent fathers might have something to do with it. “Although no studies have proved that absent fathers could lead desperate mothers to kill children, it can be linked. “What concerns us though is that the outcry is always directed at the women. Instead of asking ourselves where the father was when this happened, we criticise the woman for killing her children.”
The SAIRR recently published a paper on the state of families in the country. It revealed that 9 million children have living but absent fathers.
 http://www.thenewage.co.za/19248-1008-53-Soweto_mum_who_stabbed_daughter_denied_bail

Sunday, 10 April 2011

INFANTICIDE: South Africa: Mapaseka Seoka killed 9 day old daughter with scissors

Apr 4, 2011 | Ntwaagae Seleka
 
Judge Mbha sentenced Mapaseka Seoka, 28, to 12 years in jail after she pleaded guilty to killing her 9 -day-old daughter Ditlhoriso.
Half of the sentence was suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of assault, abuse or killing a child.
On March 8 Seoka told the court how she stabbed her daughter multiple times with a pair of scissors.
She said on August 18 2008 she took Ditlhoriso to an open veld in Newclare, where she killed the baby.
Seoka said she could not remember how many times she stabbed her child.
According to a postmortem report read by Mbha, Ditlhoriso sustained numerous wounds to her throat and ribs.
"I ask myself what was going on in your mind when you repeatedly stabbed a beautiful child using brutal force. Even animals don't behave that way with their young.
"My mind gets boggled with every stab that was inflicted by her mother," Mbha said.
Seoka was initially charged with killing her two children, her 14-month-old son Lebohang and Ditlhoriso. Charges against her for the murder of Lebohang were provisionally withdrawn pending further investigation.
"Considering the cruel and vicious way the child was killed, I have considered that direct imprisonment is suitable for you.
"The explanation that you had no means of supporting the baby and that the father of the child had left you for another woman does not justify your conduct," Mbha said.
Seoka's 9-month-old son Onkemetse will be left in the care of her mother and sister while she serves her sentence in jail
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/04/04/judge-gives-mom-12-years-for-killing-her-baby

Monday, 14 March 2011

FILICIDE: South Africa: Mapaseka Seoka

Judge warns mom who killed her child - 'Don't kill your other baby'

Mar 9, 2011 | Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi Court allows her to go home on this condition

 I killed my daughter because my baby's dad 'fell in love with another woman' 

FOUR years after a 28-year-old woman stabbed her nine-day-old daughter to death, she described to the court how she did it.
Mapaseka Seoka told the Veereniging regional court that on August 18 2008 she took her daughter to an open veld, put her on the ground and stabbed her.
"I took her to an open veld in Newclare. On arrival I stabbed the deceased with an intention to kill her. I stabbed her next to the ribs with a pair of scissors," she said in a statement read by her lawyer.
Seoka said she could not remember how many times she stabbed her daughter, Ditlhoriso.
"I then put her body in a plastic bag and dumped it in a bucket."
She then left the scene.
Seoka was originally charged with killing two children, her 14-month-old son Lebohang and nine-day-old baby Ditlhoriso.
The first child was killed on August 17 and the baby was murdered the following day.
Yesterday Seoka only pleaded guilty to killing Ditlhoriso. Charges against her for the murder of Lebohang were provisionally withdrawn pending further investigation.
She said the reason she killed her daughter was that she was unemployed and frustrated by the baby's father.
"Since I gave birth the father of the child did not maintain her. He also fell in love with another woman. That frustrated me," she said.
Seoka said she was sorry for her actions.
Judge Boisie Mbha found her guilty of the murder of Ditlhoriso.
Seoka has since given birth to another child -- an 18-month-old baby girl born when she was out on bail for the murder of the first two children.
Prosecutor J Jacobs said the state did not have enough evidence to prove that Seoka also killed her son.
Mbha said he was worried about extending Seoka's bail of R1,000 because "she might harm her 18-month-old baby".
"Ordinarily if you are found guilty, bail is cancelled. But I was thinking of extending your bail until the case was finalised because you have a baby. But my concern is that you have been found guilty of murdering a child. I am worried about the safety of the child."
The judge asked Seoka's mother and her brother to give him the assurance that the baby would not be harmed.
The case was postponed to March 31 for a probation officer to assess Seoka.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/03/09/judge-warns-mom-who-killed-her-child---don-t-kill-your-other-baby