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	Nelspruit Man on Rape, Incest Charges after Daughter Has 3 Children That Could Be His By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi Cape Times July 10, 2006 http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=3331601 Nelspruit: A girl's home is supposed to give her warmth and comfort and she can reasonably expect her father to protect her from potential abusers but, for a Mpumalanga daughter, her home became a "prison" camp and her father the "abuser". Now her future is in tatters after her dad allegedly convinced his family it was Biblically correct to sleep with her - and to father three children with her. The man is to answer charges of rape and incest. The suspect is backed by his 23-year-old son who says his father did nothing wrong and should be set free. The accused, a citizen of KaNyamazane, Nelspruit, had allegedly been sleeping with his daughter for eight years, ever since she was 13 because, according to him, that was the way God wanted it. Sleeping with her was also an attempt to protect her from "the oncoming wave of mayhem and chaos that would culminate in Armageddon". The alleged sexual abuse of his own child is said to have resulted in the girl bearing three children, now aged six, three and two years old. The man, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of his wife and daughter, is said to have kept his family virtual prisoners by not allowing his wife and daughter to leave the house unless they went to buy groceries. He also allegedly banned his family from talking to neighbours "to protect them from the evils of the world". Police say he started their own "church" at his house where he preached that his daughter had to sleep with him so that she would go to heaven. On Friday, the man appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on charges of rape and incest and the case was postponed to August 11 because paternity tests have not yet been completed. He was denied bail and is in custody. KaNyamazane police spokesman Captain Ronny Sikhonde said the girl's problems began in 1998 when the man called his wife and daughter, who was then 13, and told them that he had a vision in which God instructed him to sleep with his daughter in order to protect her from the evils of the world. The accused, who is a respected member of the community and also a spokesman for the Dlamini clan in the former KaNgwane, had his daughter drop out of school. "He used to tell her that she was doing God's job (by sleeping with him)," said Sikhonde. It is also alleged that the accused would not allow his wife and daughter to watch TV, or listen to the radio. Furthermore he allegedly paid a lobola of R2 500 to his wife for his daughter. It was this money that they used to escape from the house. The girl, her three children, her mother and five siblings fled to relatives in February where they reported the matter to the police. It was then that police arrested the man and the complainants were put into the witness protection programme. Neighbours in the area said they did not know what was going on in the house because they never communicated with the family and hardly saw the girl and her mother. The 23-year-old son said the case against his father was "painful and hurting" for him and his two other teenage brothers who remained behind. He said since his father's arrest the family was starving. Before they started their own "church" at home they were members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the son said.
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