Sello Morake & ’Matsei Moloi
BUTHA-BUTHE — A Butha-Buthe woman suspected to be a psychiatric patient was on Thursday arrested for allegedly killing her three-month- old baby by pounding her with a stick. ´Makampong Pali, 25, appeared in the Butha-Buthe Magistrate’s Court on Friday. The court however said she must be sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. Senior Superintendent Mampho Mokhele said Pali was brought to the police by her relatives carrying the dead body of her child.
According to her medical records she has a long history of being admitted at a mental health hospital. “The woman seems to be mentally disturbed,” Mokhele said. In an interview Ramahetlana Pali, brother to ´Makampong said the mental problems of her younger sister started way back in 2006 when she had her first child. “We took her to Butha-Buthe government hospital where she was given medication that helped her to recover,” he said. “But after the problem recurred I discovered that her husband had stopped giving her the medication.”
Meanwhile, an-85-year-old woman from Ha-Setefane in Mokhotlong was last week burnt to death when the hut she was sleeping in caught fire. The incident happened last Wednesday. Senior Superintendent Molahlehi Letsoepa said the deceased, ´Mamoeko Moeko, was staying alone. The police suspected it was an accident. The area chief, Bokang Moshoeshoe, said his wife raised alarm when she discovered that Moeko’s hut was on fire. “I was still in the house when I heard my wife calling out to me to help put out the fire at Moeko’s hut,” Moshoeshoe said.
“We rushed to her place but we could not extinguish the fire. “The smoke coming from the hut made it impossible for us to save her.” He said the police came the following day and found her badly charred remains. In another case, a Qacha’s Nek woman paid with her life after she failed to wake up in the middle of the night to serve food to her husband. Zebenzani Beteboe, 41, allegedly stabbed his wife, Notane Beteboe with a knife on the left breast last Saturday. She died on the scene. Police spokesman, Inspector Pheello Mphana, said Beteboe arrived home at around 11pm, woke up his wife and ordered her to give him food.
The wife refused sparking a fight between the two. The wife is alleged to have hit her with a stone on the head. In revenge, Beteboe stabbed his wife with a knife on the left breast. He was arrested on Saturday and appeared in court on Monday facing a murder charge. Beteboe was remanded in custody.
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