Penwell Dlamini

Penwell Dlamini

The 20-year-old mother who allegedly killed her two daughters by feeding them rat poison is still in hospital, depressed and detached from reality.

"I thought I was doing just a small thing. I did not want my name to be in newspapers. This is depressing," Shirley Obose said this week. "I am not grateful that I am alive."

On January 12, after Obose had quarrelled with the father of her two daughters, she allegedly mixed rat poison into a drink, took a swig and gave the rest to her one-year-old and three-year-old daughters.

Londiwe and Samkelisiwe died as paramedics battled to save them, but their mother miraculously survived.

Her father, Jacob Zulu, found Obose and her daughters groaning in pain when he returned home in Jabulani, Soweto, and rushed them to the nearby fire station.

Obose lost consciousness while the paramedics attended to her children. She spent more than a week in the intensive care unit at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital.

Aldicarb, the substance that the young mother allegedly used to try to end her life, is found in rat poison. A teaspoon of aldicarb can kill a rhino.

The children were buried on January 16, but Obose does not yet know that her daughters have died. She is in the psychiatric ward at the hospital.

Mourners at the funeral called for friends and relatives to forgive her and accept her back into the community.

The depressed mother reportedly also tried to abort her youngest daughter by overdosing on pills when she was three months pregnant. She was then hospitalised for three months.

Obose's mother died three years ago and she inherited some money that she apparently used to buy a car for her boyfriend.