Witbank mother Zinhle Maditla was on Friday sentenced to four life terms for feeding rat poison to her four children, aged between 11 months and eight years old.

Handing down sentence, eNCA reports that Judge Sheila Mphahlele said, “Their mother was meant to nurture and protect them. . . She betrayed her own children.”

Maditla was standing trial in the Mpumalanga high court, where she apologised to her family and both the fathers of her late children this week.

The children - Ethan, Shaniqua, Blessing and Minenhle - were killed on December 26. She confessed to a friend four days later.

Sowetan has previously reported that Maditla said she had gone to meet the father of two of her children, who had promised to buy them food and Christmas clothes when she allegedly found him with another woman. She said an argument ensued.

“I left and while I was crying at the taxi rank, I saw people selling rat poison and I bought it. When I got home, I prepared food and I put in the poison; the children ate and I also ate it myself,” said Maditla.