Father made his daughter pregnant
The Herald, November 9, 1985 A FATHER who made his daughter pregnant and was arrested when he approached a n’anga with a request to make the daughter abort was convicted of incest last week.
Mutare magistrate Mr Willas Bhila convicted the 60-year-old man of six counts of incest and one of attempted abortion.
He referred him to the Attorney-General’s Office for sentence.
Evidence was that the man is married with 10 children and worked at a motel.
In January, the 17-year-old daughter was living in the communal lands and on several occasions came to town to visit her father to ask for school fees and other school items.
The father, who was lodging in one room, had sex with her on six different occasions and she fell pregnant.
When the pregnancy came to light, he took his daughter to several n’angas and gave her various herbs to procure an abortion.
The herbs were mixed with water and when she drank one of the mixtures she had a watery discharge.
The father went to several n’angas, one of whom reported to the police. When the father appeared in court last week his daughter was six months pregnant.
Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Mr Duncan Dingaan, the accused said he was being framed by his wife and daughter because he had refused their daughter’s boyfriend permission to come to their home.
He said he went to see a n’anga to find out who was responsible for the pregnancy. The court found that the daughter was a virgin when she first slept with her father.
She told the court he bled profusely on the first night.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
◆ Culturally, November is regarded a special month with many dos and don’ts including incest.
◆ Sexual abuse of the girl child by their own kith and kin is becoming more prevalent which calls for stringent laws to deter would-be offenders since the crime scars and traumatises the victims, emotionally and physically.
◆ Psychologists postulate that perpetrators of such heinous crimes, especially if they are fathers of the victim have deep-seated psy- chological issues, and as such, if convicted, they should not only be jailed but should also receive psychological help.
◆ The increase in cases of fathers raping their daughters calls for greater control and observation within the home. The assumption that fathers are responsible and ethical human beings is no longer the norm because some of them have become monsters.