EC mother accused of killing children with sledgehammer dies

A MOTHER who found herself in police custody following the alleged murder of her four children with a sledgehammer has died.

The 32-year-old mother of four, Nomboleko Simayile, was arrested following an initial investigation which revealed that she was allegedly responsible for the murder of the children in her home village.

The office of the provincial police commissioner yesterday said that at the time Simayile's death, the circumstances which led to the killing of the children were still under investigation.

Preliminary investigations, police said, found that the children, aged between 2 and 11, had allegedly been assaulted by their mother with a sledgehammer and consequently suffered serious injuries to their upper bodies. Their bodies were found in the rondavel hut by the suspect's parents and the community, reports said.

Simayile was transferred to the local hospital after she fell sick in the holding cells and the matter against her was postponed in absentia.

“According to the information, while she was in police custody on Sunday afternoon November 20, she reported to the police that she was not feeling well, but did not say what the nature of the sickness was.

“She was then immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention, where she died. The cause of death is yet to be established, once the post-mortem has been conducted,” police spokesperson Tembinkosi Kinana said.

Simayile had appeared in Engcobo Magistrate's Court on murder charges and the case had been postponed to November 29 for a formal bail hearing. “An inquest docket has been registered for investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid),” Kinana said.