A 52-year-old KwaZulu-Natal man has been arrested for allegedly grooming his daughter as a sex slave over nine years.
The victim, who is now 21 years old, opened a case of rape against her father in KwaMakhongwane in Bulwer.
His daughter told a team of social workers that her father had groomed her to be his “sex slave”.
Bulwer police then traced the man to his workplace, where they arrested him. The woman has since been moved to a safe shelter.
KwaZulu-Natal social development MEC, Nonhlanhla Khoza, commended the arrest, the social workers and the police for their efforts.
Khoza said she was “very pleased by the dedication shown by the social workers and police who attended this matter”.
“Equally, we want to applaud members of the community, who finally spoke out about this inhumane act of this heartless man,” she said.
She urged the police to do their due diligence and collect all evidence to secure a successful prosecution against the father.
Khoza described the culprit as “heartless” and “dangerous” to society.
“No child is safe if a person can sleep with his daughter and act as if it is normal,” said Khoza.
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South Africa has a high rate of cases where male relatives, including fathers, rape the family’s children.
In many cases, families band together and shield the perpetrators from facing the law.
“Every member of society has to play their role in exposing such cruelty,” Khoza stressed.
In 2018, Verulam police arrested a man for keeping his stepdaughter as a sex slave for five years.
He was convicted on 900 counts of rape.
The 43-year-old man started raping his stepdaughter when she was just five years old, after her mother died.
The MEC vowed not to stand idle while “children suffer abuse daily at the hands of people who are supposed to protect them”.
“We will follow this case to the end, as we want the court to set an example with this man,” she said.
The department said it would continue to provide psychosocial support to the victim and her siblings.
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