A TODDLER has been beaten to death by his mother’s lover on an Mpumalanga farm. Bancho Malepe, 3, died on his mother’s bed on Rietfontein 7 farm, near Lydenburg. She is a farm worker. Police say the the assaults began on Sunday afternoon. Then the man slapped the child several times after midnight. At about 9am on Monday the man led the child, who was still able to walk, into the fields near the mother’s hut. “The man returned about an hour later, carrying Bancho,” said Marais. “The boy was conscious, but his arms were lame and his face was swollen.” The mother took the child and placed him on her bed. When she checked on him at about 3pm, he was dead. She apparently called the police, but the man who assaulted Bancho had fled by the time they arrived.