The Sowetan reported on Thursday that a 57-year-old sangoma had married a 13-year-old epileptic girl in Modimolle, so he could monitor her trouble with her ancestors.

The girl''s mother reportedly said the sangoma treated her daughter for two years and cured her epilepsy. He then told her ancestors were troubling the girl and she needed to be monitored. He offered to marry her.

“ We had no choice but to agree to his suggestion because we wanted her to be healthy,”  the woman told the newspaper. She said she accepted a R5 000 ilobola (dowry) for her daughter.