Sentencing postponed in family killing case

THE sentencing of a mother who has pleaded guilty to murdering her three children has been postponed to May 7.

Saima Nghiholemote Hangula (30), from Eexwa/Ohehonge village in the Ohangwena Region, faces three charges of murder in the High Court at Oshakati. She was to be sentenced on Friday, but her lawyer, Frieda Kishi, requested a postponement to allow her to submit a pre-sentencing report from social workers.Hangula has pleaded guilty to drowning her three children in a well at their village on May 10 last year.The three children were her nine-year-old daughter Emilia Popyeinawa Isai, her four-year-old son Paulus Shongela and Frans Kashivulu, who was four months old.Hangula said she tried to drown herself as well, but did not succeed because the water was too shallow.Hangula told the court that she had decided to kill her children because their father had abandoned her and the children after she had been diagnosed with a serious illness.”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,” Hangula told Judge Louis Muller on April 17.She was to be sentenced on Friday, but her lawyer, Frieda Kishi, requested a postponement to allow her to submit a pre-sentencing report from social workers.Hangula has pleaded guilty to drowning her three children in a well at their village on May 10 last year.The three children were her nine-year-old daughter Emilia Popyeinawa Isai, her four-year-old son Paulus Shongela and Frans Kashivulu, who was four months old. Hangula said she tried to drown herself as well, but did not succeed because the water was too shallow.Hangula told the court that she had decided to kill her children because their father had abandoned her and the children after she had been diagnosed with a serious illness.”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,” Hangula told Judge Louis Muller on April 17.