A South African bishop has been sentenced to 12 years
imprisonment for raping and impregnating his daughter by
the Limpopo High Court sitting in Thohoyandou.
The 65-year-old bishop of a local church in Tshilavulu village,
who cannot be named to protect the identity of the daughter,
pleaded guilty to the charge.
Judge Khami Makhafola said
"that he had no option but to punish the man, as society and
the bishop's church would expect the culprit to be punished
for his sins and that the bishop need to be rehabilitated in a
correctional facility."
The sexual abuse on his daughter was said to have began in
2006 when she was just 12years old. it was uncloaked in
2010 when she became pregnant.
The National Prosecuting Authority's provincial spokesperson
Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi had previously said that, during the
four-year ordeal, the bishop used to take his daughter to a
nearby bush under the pretext that there were dangers that
were going to befall her, and then had told her that she
needed "divine intervention".
The bishop would then sexually penetrate her, before asking
her to wash herself clean.
Although he pleaded guilty, the bishop had told the court that
he was healing his daughter.
In aggravation of sentencing, State prosecutor Ratshilumela
Makhera said the bishop's actions could not be associated
with Christianity and described them as "a high level of moral
bankruptcy".
"What the man of cloth did was un-Christian, morally
bankrupt and a shame to the church he heads, and he needs
to go to prison," Makhera said.
https://www.freshstuffs.com.ng/2018/04/was-healing-her-bishop-who-impregnated.html?m=1