A 41-year-old father has been detained for impregnating his own daughter.

The girl broke her silence to Mphephu police officers after her father was again demanding sex during the Easter weekend. Now she has abandoned her education and is looking after her one-year-old baby at home. This happened at Rabali Village, in the Nzhelele Valley, and villagers are still shocked as they were expecting that she had been impregnated by a boy of her age.

Police Captain Mashudu Malelo said the father started raping his own daughter two years ago when the girl was 15 years old. "Now she is 17 and the father threatened to kill her if she disclosed her ordeal to anyone. She even tried to disclose the fact to her mother, but the mother scolded her to keep quiet because she insisted that it might cause division in the family."

The father was arrested and he is facing a rape charge and is due to appear in the Dzanani Magistrate Court.

The Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Program (TVEP) is deeply touched by the abuse of children. Its chief executive officer, Fiona Nicholson, said her centre is assisting 40 rape and 80 domestic-violence survivors every month. "We seriously condemn the incident because it is against the rights of children. The escalated trend in child violence is clearly unacceptable. About 58% of the rape survivors are children, and 38% of all victims are under the age of 13. Fifteen pre-teen children report rape to the TVEP on a monthly basis," Nicholson said.