‘Murder’ mom recounts abuse
IN THE wake of Women’s Month, during which the spotlight fell on the abuse of women and children, a Strand mother testified how abuse meted out by her husband drove her to set their shack alight.
Ntefeleng Lethetsa, on trial for the murder of her three-week-old baby, broke down in the Western Cape High Court yesterday as she recounted what happened in April last year.
The baby died and she and her other child – a 1-year-old – were seriously injured.
Lethetsa, 36, also faces an attempted murder charge.
On the day of the incident she
asked her husband to withdraw money for nappies, but it turned into a fight about her being unable to satisfy his sexual appetite.
“We were hitting each other, but he was overpowering me. I called the police.”
Neighbours intervened and he then left – his parting words were that he would kill her in their home when he returned.
“He wanted to assault me again, I then ran into the house. I locked myself in, poured paraffin inside the house behind the door. I struck the match twice and took my two children and went to sit with them on the bed. I was breastfeeding the youngest and the older one was standing next to me crying.” When her husband returned, their home was burning. She said he opened a window and rescued the 1-year-old before she handed him the baby. He then helped her out of the flames.
A neighbour took her in to hide from an angry community and when the police arrived she was told her baby had died.
Medical reports of incidents where her husband allegedly assaulted her were handed to the court. Lethetsa said she endured difficult conditions in the marriage, but loved him.
“I thought of killing myself and the children so that we could no longer be on earth,” she said.
She ended her testimony by saying she “can’t live without him”.
Judge Mushtak Parker ordered that Lethetsa undergo an evaluation by a private clinical psychologist.