Tebogo Msimanga |
The Free State High Court sentenced a 31-year-old woman, to 28 years imprisonment for each of the three counts of murder.Mamphepi Alina Mokoena killed her husband, Sofra Frans Pamplin (49) and their daughters, Mamsy Portia Mokoena (14), and Meikie Mokoena (10).
She was also sentenced to an additional 10 years of imprisonment for the attempted murder of the third daughter, Lerato Aletta Mokoena (11).
Free State NPA spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said in a plea agreement that was read by a lawyer, Mokoena, from Farm Tokka, in the district of Bethlehem, said that their marriage was volatile as she endured abuse from her husband.
“She went to town on 17 June 2022, to buy a poison known as Temic, and told her sister, who was with her, that she was buying it to poison rats at their house. In the early morning of 22 June 2022, five days after buying the poison, she prepared the family breakfast, poured the sachet of poison into a pot of beans soup and served the three children before they went to school”.
Shuping said the husband took some of the poisoned soup to work for his lunch, and Mokoena took some of the soup along to work, to eat it, but she did not get a chance to eat the soup because her sister was present.
“Mokoena was called by the teachers at school after the three children were transported to the clinic, following their fainting. Portia and Meikie passed on at the clinic and Lerato was assisted and admitted to the ICU section of the Pherong District Hospital, where she recovered”.
The husband also fell ill at work, and he was rushed to Dihlabeng Regional Hospital, but he too, died due to the intake of the said poisoned soup.
The State Prosecutor, Advocate Dansi Mpemvane requested the court to impose a hefty term of direct imprisonment on the accused because the “interest of the society and the families of the deceased demand that such crimes be given a fitting punishment to deter others from committing such offences.
