'Sleep with dad, go to heaven'
2006-07-06 11:27
Sakhile Mokoena
White River - A man accused of fathering three children with his daughter after convincing his family that it was biblically right will appear in court on Friday.
The 49-year-old father will appear in the KaBokweni magistrate's court outside White River in Mpumalanga on charges of incest.
He is accused of sleeping with his 21-year-old daughter since she was 13 and fathering her three children.
She gave birth to her first child, a girl, when she was 15 and she had to drop out of school in Grade 8.
She never returned to school and, in 2003, gave birth to a son. A year later, she gave birth to another girl.
Police said the suspect kept his family like prisoners and banned them from talking to neighbours to "protect them from the evils of the world".
They believed the world was coming to an end soon.
They had their own "church" where the father preached that a girl had to sleep with her father in order to go to heaven.
The father had his own bedroom and would allegedly call either his wife or daughter when he wanted sex.
The family escaped when they came across a letter on February 4 in which the man allegedly wrote about a plan to kill them and commit suicide with his licensed firearm.
The girl, her three children, her mother, and five siblings fled to relatives in Nkomazi and reported the matter to the police.
The man has never been asked to plead and he is in police custody.
- African Eye