WATCH: Two life sentences for mom who killed her young sons

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Rehitlilhe Katlego Matjane found guilty of shooting and killing her two sons aged 2 and 6 was handed two life sentences in the Gauteng High Court,Pretoria. In giving his hefty sentence, Judge Hans Fabricius, said the picture of horror that the young children must have felt was difficult to erase and would never completely disappear. As he said: "It goes completely against nature for a mother to kill them for almost any conceivable reason, let alone a reason that selfishly relates to the quality of her marriage, or lack of such." "The world of the eldest child must have collapsed before him in the moments when he saw his mother standing in front of him with a firearm moments after she had shot his younger brother," he added. Fabricius convicted Matjane, the wife of well-known psychologist Dr. Maxwell Matjane, of premeditated murder as she fetched 6-year-old Keyondre Matjane and 2-year-old brother, Alvero Matjane from school on April 17, 2015, and drove them to a remote spot near Hammanskraal, where she shot them.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Convicted murder Rehithile Katlego Matjane hugs her husband Dr Maxwell Matjane after she Video: Goitsemang Tlhabye





This was despite her pleading not guilty to the double murder and saying she dearly loved her children and would never willingly harm them.

She blamed her actions on the day in question as to being as a result of over-the-counter medication for her temporary memory loss.

As she alleged she only had “snapshot memories” of what happened.

Fabricius said he found no compelling and substantial circumstances that would justify a lesser sentence contemplated for planned murders.

And so gave Matjane life imprisonment for each of the murders, five years imprisonment for the unlawful possession of a firearm and another year for the unlawful possession of ammunition.

The sentences are to run concurrently.