SHE allowed blind rage to take over - and it cost the life of her three-year-old son.

The woman, who cannot be named until she has appeared in court, boarded a taxi from Ga-Molepo village in Limpopo to Tembisa in Ekurhuleni with the intention of sorting out her relationship problems, but ended up without a boyfriend or a child.

"All I wanted to do was to mend my relationship with the father of my child, but his actions made me lose my mind.

"I ended up with rat poison, which I gave to my son after I had also taken a spoonful," she said from her hospital bed.

She told social workers that her boyfriend had stopped supporting their son and that she struggled to reach him on his phone.

"Then, when I called him on Sunday, a woman answered his phone and I was very upset.

"So on Monday I took a taxi from Limpopo to talk to him in person."

She said that when she got to Tembisa, he was not home and only returned late at night.

That surprised her, because he is a petrol attendant and she expected him home earlier because of the strike.

"By then I had noticed a woman's bracelet and some sweets. I asked him what he was doing with sweets as he does not have a sweet tooth. We quarrelled and he left.

"When he came back on Tuesday morning, he told me he didn't want me any more.

"I was devastated. I went to buy bread and on my way back I saw a hawker outside the shop selling rat poison and I bought some for R10," she said.

The woman said she also called the man's aunt, telling her what had happened since her arrival.

A hawker overheard this conversation, she said .

"He told me he always saw my boyfriend walk past, hand in hand with a woman."

She said her boyfriend was sitting on his bed when she took the poison.

"He asked me what was I doing. I grabbed my son and I opened his mouth and gave some of it to him. That's when he called the police. They came within minutes," she said.

"They took me to the police station and asked me to leave my son with his aunt."

Her son died in hospital a few hours later.

Police confirmed the case and said the woman would appear in court as soon as she had been discharged from hospital.

"She is under police guard and will only appear in court when she is well enough to stand in the dock, " said investigating officer Constable Tumelo Machete.

"Until then we cannot comment on her condition or charges."

ngudlea@sundayworld.co.za