Homosexual mother who suffocated her children to death said she only got pregnant to please her family

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Photo: Supplied\NPA

A 34 years old mother who had a long running bad relationship with her mother said she could no longer take the hurt and rejection from her mother.

Busisiwe Labi from Dimbaza in the Eastern Cape who found guilty of murder was convicted for suffocating her two children to death in September 2020.

Labi, who said she discovered that she was homosexual when she was in grade 7, got rejected by her own mother for her sexual orientation and for quite some time and as a result the relationship between the two went south.

This was further echoed by a Psycho-Legal report that was presented in court which revealed that her family also disapproved of her sexual preference.

NPA Regional spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said that Labi also said that she just got involved in heterosexual relationships just to appease her family.

“The report further stated that Labi had said that she engaged in heterosexual relationships with the fathers of her children because her family did not approve of her homosexuality and that her mother wanted grandchildren. She further added that she had boyfriends to satisfy her mother.”

Having had enough of living her life trying to satisfy her family, she suffocated her two boys to death, one-year-old Othandwayo and six-year-old Amyoli while her mother and siblings were not present at home.

Before murdering them, she informed the children of her plans to kill them. The eldest boy, Amyoli, pleaded with her not to do so but his plea fell on deaf ears. She prayed with the boys, took turns to suffocate them to death with plastic bags and pillows and thereafter laid their bodies neatly on a bed.

She did in a house she was living with her children, her mother and her two siblings but she was alone at the time.

The court also heard that Labi had lived her life angry at her mother for not telling her who father is until she was in high school. She said she felt betrayed by her mother.

“A day before murdering her boys Labi got into an argument with her mother as the mother gave her younger brother money which was meant to be used for items in the household.”

“Labi felt that her mother favoured her brother over her. It was revealed during sentencing that Labi also murdered her two boys because she wanted to cause her mother grief as the mother had a close relationship with her grandchildren” said Ngcakani.

The police only learned about the crime when she phoned her 42-year-old sister to tell her what she had done.

Rushing to the scene, lifeless bodies of the two boys were found and she was arrested.

Having made appearances in court, she was found guilty of the two murder charges on 22 July 2021 by the High Court in the Eastern Cape division.

Presiding over the case, Judge Belinda Hartle during sentencing quoted Labi’s sentiments that although she loved her children she didn’t want to be a mother.

She was sentenced to 22 years and six months imprisonment each for murdering her two children. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.