Getrude Makhafola

Getrude Makhafola

The pain and sorrow of losing two loved ones was etched on the faces of the distraught family of Seipati Boholo as they prepared for a cleansing ceremony last weekend.

Twenty-two-year-old Boholo and her eight-month-old baby girl, Kamogetswe, were given porridge laced with poison in May.

The suspect, Nonkululeko Skosana, appeared in the Orlando magistrates' court where the case was postponed to later this month for a bail application.

Skosana, who was close to Boholo, was arrested in Meadowlands, Soweto, as she allegedlly tried to burn Boholo alive after tying her up in a car and dousing it with petrol before setting it alight.

Boholo was rescued by members of the Meadowlands Community Policing Forum, who arrested Skosana as she tried to run away from the scene.

The baby was found abandoned in an open veld in Pimville and she later died at Kliptown police station before an ambulance arrived. Her mother died in hospital from the poison.

Yesterday Soweto police spokesman Captain Lindiwe Mbatha said Skosana would be charged with the murders of mother and child.