In a chilling case of incest, a man out on bail for allegedly raping his 15-year-old daughter was caught by residents while raping his nine-year-old step-daughter at his house.

The 40-year-old man who appeared in the Nelspruit magistrate's court in Mpumalanga yesterday, was out on bail for raping his teen daughter when he was subsequently bust in August while raping his step-daughter.

Community members of Pienaar outside White River told Sowetan that they grew suspicious of the man because he would often arrive with young girls in his car, and they started monitoring his movements.

He did not live with the girls in the house.

Resident Themba Maseko said they went to the house after the man had gone in with the nine-year-old and they were shocked to find him sleeping with her.

"We called the police to arrest him right away and we also came with the police to fetch the gun which the child said was in the house," said Maseko.

The father had been arrested earlier after he was reported for the alleged rape of his 15-year-old biological daughter from when she was 12.

The case of allegedly raping the teen was opened last year.

The 15-year-old girl had broken her silence to social workers where she had been referred for help.

The teen's mother told Sowetan that she referred her daughter for help after she discovered a suicide note the girl had written.

The girl, according to her mother, was initially reluctant to speak on why she wanted to kill herself.

But she told social workers that she wanted to kill herself because her father had repeatedly raped her on weekends and school holidays.

The girl's father and her mother lived separately. The teen lived with her grandmother in Tekwane outside Mbombela, some 15km from Pienaar.

"I think it was luck that I picked her up from where she was staying on the day she wrote the suicide note, ready to kill herself," the mother said.

"When she was at my house she would be quiet. When I questioned her she could not say much but only cried. I then took her to social workers and she divulged all what her father had been doing to her."

The girl told Sowetan her father showed her a gun and threatened to shoot her and her mother if she told anyone about her ordeal.

"I wrote this letter telling my mother not to think I killed myself to leave her in pain but I wanted to protect her and the family from death," she said.

The mother of the nine-year-old step-daughter refused to speak to Sowetan about her daughter's ordeal.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said police had since found that the father had a previous conviction of rape where he served four years.

"He is going to appear in court for trial on December 6 for the biological daughter's rape case. We are begging families to report such cases and not try to reconcile or settle indoors because these victims are suffering."

The man will appear in court again on November 14 to face a charge of raping his step-daughter. He has been remanded in custody until his bail application.