Church minister arrested after daughter slain

A church minister from Ngqamakhwe in the Amathole district has been arrested for allegedly strangling his 13-yearold daughter and beating a three-year-old relative so badly she is fighting for her life in hospital.

The fatal attack on the teenager is understood to have taken place at the suspect’s home in Emaxelegwini village shortly after midday on Tuesday. The victim was a grade 7 pupil and the youngest of four siblings.

A family member, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Dispatch on Wednesday the suspect had been arrested on Tuesday.

Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli confirmed that police had arrested a 69-year-old man for his alleged involvement in the murder of his daughter.

The relative claimed the minister’s wife, the mother of the older girl, had taken out a protection order against him earlier this year after she was allegedly assaulted.

According to Nkohli, preliminary investigations indicated that there was an interim protection order pending against the suspect, which was scheduled to be finalised in court next week.

Despite this, the couple still lived on the same property. grabbed his daughter, bound her hands and legs with a rope, and used a wire hanger to strangle her.

“Her mother saw him leave the house through another gate and went back home. When she got to the house, she found her daughter dead.

“She screamed, drawing the attention of neighbours, who came running.”

The relative said the minister then went to the house where the funeral was being arranged, and found the three-year-old toddler.

He allegedly grabbed her and hit her with a stick several times on the stomach and the back of the head.

He was stopped by a villager who saw what was happening.

The relative said the minister had then wandered off, rope in hand, to an area with trees and cliffs. However, one of the men in the family reportedly followed him and confronted him.

With help from other village men, the minister was brought home, where police later arrested him.

The toddler was rushed to Butterworth Hospital before being transferred to Frere Hospital in East London. Her mother reportedly works in Cape Town.

Describing the teenage victim, the relative said: “[She] was