After the murder, Labi contacted her 42-year-old sister and told her what she had done.
Cape Town – An Eastern Cape mother has been sentenced to 22 years and six months imprisonment in the Bhisho high court after being convicted of murdering her two young children.
Busisiwe Labi, 34, from Dimbaza, murdered the children aged one and six years last September, according to the National Prosecuting Authority. The court has ordered her sentence to run concurrently.
Evidence before court revealed that Labi lived with her children, mother and two siblings. She suffocated one-year-old Othandwayo and six-year-old Amyoli to death while her mother and siblings were away.
Before the act, she informed the children of her intention to kill them and went ahead despite a plea not to do so from the older boy. The court heard that Labi first prayed with the children before suffocating them with plastic bags and pillows and laying their bodies on a bed.
After the murder, Labi contacted her 42-year-old sister and told her what she had done. The matter was reported to the police who found the bodies of the children, leading to the woman’s arrest. She was charged with two counts of murder and convicted on July 22.
The court also heard that a day before the murder, Labi had got into an argument with her mother, accusing her of favouring her younger brother after the older woman gave him money meant for the household.
During sentencing, it emerged that Labi had murdered her children partly to cause her mother grief as she had a very close relationship with her grandchildren.
A psycho-legal report handed to the court also revealed that Labi had confessed to being a lesbian since Grade 7 and that her family did not approve of her sexuality. She engaged in heterosexual relationships with the fathers of her children partly for that reason, and also because her mother wanted grandchildren.
The court also heard that while Labi loved her children, she had never wanted to be a mother.
African News Agency (ANA)
