Alex Matlala
Alex Matlala
People laughed and jeered when a 50-year-old Limpopo pastor, accused of raping his stepdaughter and impregnating her, appeared in court.
The Balobedu magistrates' court was packed when the pastor, Maile Mohale, appeared for a bail application.
The heavily pregnant 13-year-old girl was accompanied by her mother and a group of relatives.
Mohale was refused bail and remanded in custody. He is expected to appear again on February 16.
Mohale, of Khehlakone village, was arrested in November.
He had allegedly been raping his stepdaughter since January 2005, when the girl was just 11.
The girl's plight came to light when she was taken to a clinic when she complained of headaches and started vomiting. A pregnancy test confirmed she was expecting a baby.
When the nurses asked the girl who was responsible for the pregnancy, she told them that her stepfather had been raping her for years.
The girl also told them that her father would wait for her mother to leave the house and then coerce her into sleeping with him. She said she agreed because her stepfather threatened to disown her, not pay her school fees or buy her clothes.
The nurses informed the girl's mother and then the police were told.
Mohale fled the village when he realised the police were looking for him. He was arrested when members of the community, who knew where he was hiding, tipped off the police.
Sources in the village told Sowetan that at first the girl was rebuked by her mother for speaking to strangers about the alleged rape and pregnancy. They said Mohale was the sole breadwinner in the family and the mother feared he would stop looking after them.
Girl, 13, says stepdad made her pregnant
Alex Matlala
Alex Matlala
People laughed and jeered when a 50-year-old Limpopo pastor, accused of raping his stepdaughter and impregnating her, appeared in court.
The Balobedu magistrates' court was packed when the pastor, Maile Mohale, appeared for a bail application.
The heavily pregnant 13-year-old girl was accompanied by her mother and a group of relatives.
Mohale was refused bail and remanded in custody. He is expected to appear again on February 16.
Mohale, of Khehlakone village, was arrested in November.
He had allegedly been raping his stepdaughter since January 2005, when the girl was just 11.
The girl's plight came to light when she was taken to a clinic when she complained of headaches and started vomiting. A pregnancy test confirmed she was expecting a baby.
When the nurses asked the girl who was responsible for the pregnancy, she told them that her stepfather had been raping her for years.
The girl also told them that her father would wait for her mother to leave the house and then coerce her into sleeping with him. She said she agreed because her stepfather threatened to disown her, not pay her school fees or buy her clothes.
The nurses informed the girl's mother and then the police were told.
Mohale fled the village when he realised the police were looking for him. He was arrested when members of the community, who knew where he was hiding, tipped off the police.
Sources in the village told Sowetan that at first the girl was rebuked by her mother for speaking to strangers about the alleged rape and pregnancy. They said Mohale was the sole breadwinner in the family and the mother feared he would stop looking after them.