Mary Bokaba, a 28-year-old mother who killed her two young daughters, has been sentenced to 20 years direct imprisonment for the crime. The girls were eight years old and two months at the time. Bokaba was sentenced to 10 years for each of her daughters and the court ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.  

KIDS DIED FOR MJOLO

The court heard that Bokaba was married to the father of her two-month-old daughter and stayed with him at his parents' house in the backroom in Saulsville, Pretoria. According to NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana, while the couple were still in a relationship, Bokaba discovered that her husband was continuously cheating on her and was not assisting her with the children. On 12 May 2022, she decided to leave her husband and called her mother to help her move out on 14 May 2022. However, when she woke up on the morning of 14 May 2022, she told the court in her plea statement that she felt overwhelmed with the state of her relationship with her husband and decided to kill herself and her children by hanging them with a cord. "Bokaba claimed that she did what she did to save them from the consequence of growing up without a mother.  After hanging and killing the children, Bokaba attempted to commit suicide by also hanging herself but was unsuccessful. She then untied the children, placed them on the bed and buzzed her mother-in-law. The incident was discovered by the mother-in-law after receiving a missed call from Bokaba.When the mother-in-law went to the backroom to check, she found the bodies of the children on top of the bed. Police were called and Bokaba was arrested and has been in custody since." Mahanjana said.

A SERIOUS OFFENCE 

 When handing down the sentence, Judge Mashudu Munzhelele found that there were substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years because Bokaba did not waste the court's time. She pleaded guilty and she was a first-time offender. "Bokaba committed the offences under emotional distress. She also made a plea that information should be made available to help women who feel they don't have a way out," said the judge.