Dad claims rape not a sin

2008-05-27 14:06

Thabisile Khoza

Barberton - A father has been charged with raping his daughter for the past four years, telling her white people did the same thing to prepare their daughters for marriage.

His 17-year-old daughter called her mother for help last week on the advice of social workers who had been alerted to the situation by concerned neighbours.

"She had never told anyone about the rapes because she was scared of her father and also believed him when he said that what he was doing was normal," said Constable Jabu Ndubane on Tuesday. "But neighbours eventually grew suspicious."

The girl told her mother she had been raped since her parents separated and her mother moved out.

She and her younger brother, who is now 14, were left with their father at the Mjindini hostel in Umjindini township outside Barberton, Mpumalanga.

The girl fell pregnant the first year she was raped and was forced to have an abortion.

"Last year, she fell pregnant again and was told her to keep the baby this time," said Ndubane.

Ndubane said the girl had visible scars from electric shocks that her father allegedly gave her.

"She described her father as an abusive man who didn't have a heart and always beat her with anything he could find if she tried to refuse to have sex with him," said Ndubane.

She was not allowed to have friends or even talk to her brother.

Forced to have sex

"When she asked him why he always raped her, he would say it was not a sin because even white people had sex with their daughters to prepare them for marriage," said Ndubane.

The girl gave birth to a daughter on February 24 and said that three days later, she was forced to have sex again.

When she called her mother for help last Wednesday, her mother immediately travelled by taxi from Tongaview to fetch her children and three-month-old grandchild.

She reported her ex to the Tonga police and the case was transferred to Barberton.

"We were still going to arrest him when he showed up at the police station on Monday claiming that his three children had disappeared and he had a suspect," said Ndubane.

He was arrested and is expected to appear in the Barberton Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on charges of statutory rape.

- African Eye