Day of reckoning for mother who drowned three children

TRIPLE child killer Saima Hangula wanted to save her children from what she felt was a hostile and lonely world when she drowned them in a well in northern Namibia last year, a clinical psychologist testified in Hangula’s trial in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Judge Louis Muller is scheduled to sentence Hangula today on the three counts of murder to which she pleaded guilty when her trial started during a circuit court session of the High Court at Oshakati in April. Yesterday, Judge Muller heard clinical psychologist William Chiremba testify about his psychological evaluation of Hangula, and also heard final arguments from Deputy Prosecutor General Heidi Jacobs and defence counsel Frieda Kishi on the sentence.’DRIVEN TO DESPAIR’ Hangula (30) has admitted that she killed her three children – nine-year-old Emilia Popyeingenawa Isai, Paulus Shonghela (4) and four-month-old Frans Kashivulu Shonghela – at Eexwa-Ohehonge, a village in the Eenhana district, on May 10 2006.In a plea explanation provided to the Judge when her trial began, Hangula said that her children’s father had deserted her and was not taking care of the children, and that she was in ill health.These circumstances made her depressed and brought her to a point where she decided to take her own life and the lives of her children, Hangula said.”I decided this because I felt I could not leave my kids behind as they are already suffering.I first walked the kids into the water, where they drowned and I attempted to kill myself but the water was too shallow,” she declared in her plea.After asking for mercy from the court, society and God, Hangula further stated: “I know I have sinned by taking three innocent lives but at the time I thought it was better for all of us to go.”FAMILY According to information he got from Hangula, she grew up under very difficult financial and social circumstances, Chiremba testified yesterday on his psychological evaluation of Hangula.Hangula was her parents’ first child, Chiremba told the Judge.Her parents separated when she was nine years old, and her mother then had a string of boyfriends, who all abandoned her when she got pregnant.Her mother eventually had 12 children – all outside wedlock, Chiremba said.Hangula left school in Grade 4 when she became pregnant with her first child, Chiremba related.Her second and third children were fathered by another man, and both fathers were reluctant to provide support for their children, he added.Hangula had moved to Ondangwa, where she eked out a living selling vetkoek on street corners, by the time she met and fell in love with the father of her second and third children, the Judge heard.According to Hangula, her relationship with her sons’ father “was punctuated with neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse”, Chiremba said.After her third child’s birth, the child’s father showed “an ambivalent attitude” towards the baby, Hangula reported according to Chiremba.He was employed as a soldier in the Namibia Defence Force, but while he had an income, he failed to buy clothes or food for the baby, and at one stage sent Hangula and her children away to her mother’s home on the pretext that she needed her mother’s help with the new baby, Hangula reported.On May 8 2006 the event that according to Chiremba proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back took place.Hangula and her baby had an appointment with a doctor at Onandjokwe Hospital the next day, and she had earlier phoned the child’s father to inform him that he should expect them at Ondangwa that day.He agreed to wait for them, but when Hangula arrived at his house, he was not present and the doors were locked.The neighbours told her that he had left a few hours earlier, and when she phoned him, he said he was in a village about 60 kilometres from Ondangwa, Chiremba said.Hangula and her baby were stranded for the night, Chiremba told the Judge.She and the baby spent the night in the open near the hospital, with the baby crying all night long from hunger and exposure to the elements.”Saima felt completely helpless,” Chiremba said.The next day she returned to the village.She went on to spend a sleepless night, thinking and taking stock of her life and trying to figure out whether she had done something wrong to deserve the suffering she felt she was being subjected to, Chiremba said.TIPPING POINT Hangula felt depressed, demoralised and in despair when she got up on the morning of May 10 2006, Chiremba testified.She eventually went to a well to do some laundry, and took her children along.She was mulling the prospect of suicide on the way to the well.Chiremba reported: “Although she had resolved to kill herself she was struggling with what was going to happen to the children after she is departed.She did not want them to continue to suffer.When she arrived at the well she said she was struck by the idea to die together with the children.She immediately acted on that thought.”Hangula had expected support from the father of her last two children, and when she did not get this, she descended into depression and feelings of hopelessness, Chiremba said.By committing suicide, she wanted to firstly end the troubles she had with the children’s father, and secondly she wanted to also save her children from a world she was experiencing as lonely and hostile, he testified.He did not regard Hangula as a danger to society, Chiremba said.However, if she did not get psychological treatment, she could still be a danger to herself, he said.Kishi argued that a suspended sentence, perhaps coupled with some sort of correctional service, would be appropriate.Jacobs, though, telling Judge Muller that she would describe the murder of the children as “heinous and monstrous”, suggested that a prison term of 25 years be imposed for each of the three murder charges, with the Judge to decide what portion of these terms should be served concurrently.Yesterday, Judge Muller heard clinical psychologist William Chiremba testify about his psychological evaluation of Hangula, and also heard final arguments from Deputy Prosecutor General Heidi Jacobs and defence counsel Frieda Kishi on the sentence. ‘DRIVEN TO DESPAIR’ Hangula (30) has admitted that she killed her three children – nine-year-old Emilia Popyeingenawa Isai, Paulus Shonghela (4) and four-month-old Frans Kashivulu Shonghela – at Eexwa-Ohehonge, a village in the Eenhana district, on May 10 2006.In a plea explanation provided to the Judge when her trial began, Hangula said that her children’s father had deserted her and was not taking care of the children, and that she was in ill health.These circumstances made her depressed and brought her to a point where she decided to take her own life and the lives of her children, Hangula said.”I decided this because I felt I could not leave my kids behind as they are already suffering.I first walked the kids into the water, where they drowned and I attempted to kill myself but the water was too shallow,” she declared in her plea.After asking for mercy from the court, society and God, Hangula further stated: “I know I have sinned by taking three innocent lives but at the time I thought it was better for all of us to go.”FAMILY According to information he got from Hangula, she grew up under very difficult financial and social circumstances, Chiremba testified yesterday on his psychological evaluation of Hangula.Hangula was her parents’ first child, Chiremba told the Judge.Her parents separated when she was nine years old, and her mother then had a string of boyfriends, who all abandoned her when she got pregnant.Her mother eventually had 12 children – all outside wedlock, Chiremba said.Hangula left school in Grade 4 when she became pregnant with her first child, Chiremba related.Her second and third children were fathered by another man, and both fathers were reluctant to provide support for their children, he added.Hangula had moved to Ondangwa, where she eked out a living selling vetkoek on street corners, by the time she met and fell in love with the father of her second and third children, the Judge heard.According to Hangula, her relationship with her sons’ father “was punctuated with neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse”, Chiremba said.After her third child’s birth, the child’s father showed “an ambivalent attitude” towards the baby, Hangula reported according to Chiremba.He was employed as a soldier in the Namibia Defence Force, but while he had an income, he failed to buy clothes or food for the baby, and at one stage sent Hangula and her children away to her mother’s home on the pretext that she needed her mother’s help with the new baby, Hangula reported.On May 8 2006 the event that according to Chiremba proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back took place.Hangula and her baby had an appointment with a doctor at Onandjokwe Hospital the next day, and she had earlier phoned the child’s father to inform him that he should expect them at Ondangwa that day. He agreed to wait for them, but when Hangula arrived at his house, he was not present and the doors were locked.The neighbours told her that he had left a few hours earlier, and when she phoned him, he said he was in a village about 60 kilometres from Ondangwa, Chiremba said.Hangula and her baby were stranded for the night, Chiremba told the Judge.She and the baby spent the night in the open near the hospital, with the baby crying all night long from hunger and exposure to the elements.”Saima felt completely helpless,” Chiremba said.The next day she returned to the village.She went on to spend a sleepless night, thinking and taking stock of her life and trying to figure out whether she had done something wrong to deserve the suffering she felt she was being subjected to, Chiremba said.TIPPING POINT Hangula felt depressed, demoralised and in despair when she got up on the morning of May 10 2006, Chiremba testified.She eventually went to a well to do some laundry, and took her children along.She was mulling the prospect of suicide on the way to the well.Chiremba reported: “Although she had resolved to kill herself she was struggling with what was going to happen to the children after she is departed.She did not want them to continue to suffer.When she arrived at the well she said she was struck by the idea to die together with the children.She immediately acted on that thought.”Hangula had expected support from the father of her last two children, and when she did not get this, she descended into depression and feelings of hopelessness, Chiremba said.By committing suicide, she wanted to firstly end the troubles she had with the children’s father, and secondly she wanted to also save her children from a world she was experiencing as lonely and hostile, he testified.He did not regard Hangula as a danger to society, Chiremba said.However, if she did not get psychological treatment, she could still be a danger to herself, he said.Kishi argued that a suspended sentence, perhaps coupled with some sort of correctional service, would be appropriate.Jacobs, though, telling Judge Muller that she would describe the murder of the children as “heinous and monstrous”, suggested that a prison term of 25 years be imposed for each of the three murder charges, with the Judge to decide what portion of these terms should be served concurrently.