Murder accused gets mental evaluation

ZINHLE Maditla, the woman who is accused of killing her four children in Klarinet in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, might have been mentally incapacitated when she allegedly committed the murders, her defence lawyer, Jabulani Maphete, said yesterday.

Mapethe was submitting an application to the Witbank Magistrate’s Court for the 24-year-old Maditla to be referred to a psychiatric institution for mental evaluation.

Maditla was present in court yesterday, where she was initially expected to make a formal bail application.

“I have decided not to proceed with the bail application and the reason for this application is that I have consulted the accused and she does not seem to be in a good state of mind,” said Maphete, who is from Legal Aid South Africa.

Maditla handed herself over to the police on December 30, shortly after the decomposed bodies of her four children were found in her rented room in Klarinet. She was charged with four counts of premeditated murder.

The children were two girls, aged 4 and 8, and two boys, aged 7 years and 11 months.

State prosecutor Johan Harmse agreed to the application and Venter subsequently granted the request.

Venter said Maditla would be referred to an unnamed psychiatric institution in Ermelo. The case was postponed to February 14 for the presentation of the psychiatric report. |