The 31-year-old man accused of slitting an eight-year-old girl’s throat abandoned his bail application in Mamelodi magistrate’s court on Thursday.

The accused, who allegedly cut the throat of his girlfriend’s daughter “execution-style” on April 24 in Mamelodi, will remain in police custody as charges piled up against him.

The girl survived the attack.

In the meantime, police have added another gender-based violence charge emanating from 2019.

This was in addition to the attempted murder charge he faces in the child’s case.

The accused handed himself over to the police on April 25 after a brief search for him.

Speaking outside the court, the biological father of the child (who cannot be named to protect her identity), said although his daughter suffered severe tissue damage from the incident, she was healing.

The minor was in ICU for most of her eight-day-long hospitalisation at the Pretoria East hospital. She has since been discharged.

“She is still going through some healthcare processes because the damage to her neck was just too much and she still cannot talk properly,” he said.

He said due to the severe trauma from the incident, his daughter was in the care of social workers and undergoing counselling.

“She needs this as I cannot imagine the trauma it caused this innocent young child when somebody decided they were going to mess up her life,” he said.

“We hope that in due time, she will recover because currently, she cannot do much of the things she used to or go to school.”

There were emotional scenes at the court gallery, where the family was seated and community members when the suspect appeared.

“I was emotional and even wanted to cry when I saw the suspect in court, but I want to remain strong for my daughter during this process to get justice for her,” the father said.

“As a family, we would like to thank the support from the community, organisations and media that shed light on our plight.”

Emotions ran high outside the court as non-profit organisations such as #NotInMyName, the local CPF and the Mamelodi community protested outside the court to support the call for justice to be served in the case of the minor.

#NotInMyName spokesperson Themba Masango said justice in the case was important so that parents would not live in fear of losing their children when playing outside.

“We want our children to be safe in Mamelodi.”

Almost 100 community members recently signed a petition to prevent bail for the accused.

On the day of the incident, it was believed that the accused and the child’s mother argued outside her homestead in Khutsong before she left for a carwash.

It is alleged that the accused went inside the home, took a knife and dragged the minor, who was playing outside, to the back of the house and slit her throat.

According to a police report, the mother reported that when she came back, she noticed the accused running out of the house carrying a sharp object.

The child’s faint, chilling screams shocked the grandmother who found her bleeding before she collapsed.

The mother went inside the house where the grandmother was carrying her daughter who was bleeding from her neck, according to police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo.

“The girl was taken to hospital where she was admitted.”

The case was postponed to May 30 for further investigations.

This will be the same date when the case of the murder of Olwethu Austin Zwane, a six-year-old boy from Mamelodi East, would be heard in court.

Zwane’s body was found in a backyard room in a pool of blood along with a knife in October 2021. A 27-year-old man, who was a neighbour of the family, was arrested for the murder.