Durban — A mother, aged 27, and her one-year-old son were found in the Alexandra Park area, Pietermaritzburg, in a suspected poisoning.
Midlands EMS said that at 10.30am, Midlands EMS crews were dispatched to the Alexandra Park area in Pietermaritzburg for a mother and child who were found not responding in an alleged poisoning incident.
“On arrival, it was found that both the mother and child showed no signs of life and were both declared deceased on the scene,” Midlands EMS said.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala said: “Charges of inquest are investigated by Alexandra Road SAPS after two bodies of a woman aged 27 and her one-year-old son were found at Alexandra Park on February 14.”
“It is suspected they ate a poisonous substance. The post-mortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death.”
In an unrelated incident, last September, three children were allegedly poisoned by their mother who later killed herself in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape.
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said it is alleged that on September 11, 2023, at about 2am, four children, aged between 4 and 14, were asleep with their grandmother and mother when their mother, Veziwe Ntsizela, 41, woke them up to accompany her for a prayer in another room. Instead, the children were taken to the forest in Luzuphu locality where they were allegedly forced to drink life-threatening pills. The 14-year-old resisted and managed to run away. The child sought help from a nearby homestead and police were notified.
“Bodies of the children were found, however, the mother was missing,” Naidu said.
She said that the next day at about 10am, Grahamstown Search and Rescue Unit found the mother about 100m from the children, in dense bushes.
Naidu said the children were identified as Iyapha Ntsizela (girl, 4), Phila Ntsizela (girl, 8) and Inga Ntsizela (girl, 12).
She said police are investigating three murder cases and an inquest.
“Preliminary investigation suggest that poverty may have been a motivating factor for this tragedy,” Naidu said.
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