Johannesburg - A pastor from the Judah African Revival Mission church in Kya Sand has been arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl five times.
He is alleged to have lured her into his bed by telling her that he was sick and that sex with her would cure him.
The incidents happened between October and December last year.
The 32-year-old man, arrested last month, is in jail. He was expected to appear in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The girl’s distraught mother said that if the man got bail, he would not live, as she and the community were angry with him and ready to deal with him.
“I am prepared to go to jail, I am very angry. He was a man of faith that we trusted and allowed into our home. He knows where we live and where my daughter goes to school,” she said.
The mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her daughter, spoke to The Star in the presence of two senior pastors of the church, Evans and Grace Phiri, who worked with the man in their church and who are now trying to assist the mother.
According to the mother, the pastor had become a family friend and often visited them at their house. The girl used to call him “daddy”, and she considered him a father figure before the rapes, said the mother. Afterwards, she started calling him by his first name.
The girl’s mother said she discovered text messages on her daughter’s phone in December when she wanted to make a call. The message from the pastor was one of comfort because she complained about “feeling sore” after the ordeal.
The mother realised what had happened and called him. He tried to pacify her, telling her it was a misunderstanding.
“My daughter said it had happened five times and she felt she was in ‘a cage’ with him all the time.
“He indoctrinated her with love messages and by telling her she was special. The first time it happened, he phoned her and told her he was coming to have sex because he was ill and needed healing. Thereafter, he groomed her into believing what they were doing was right,” said the mother.
In text messages, she asks if he would allow her to wear false eyelashes and a bob haircut. He replies: “Love you got everything woman buy at the shop…”
The girl was taken to a clinic for a rape test.
Just after being caught, the pastor contacted the daughter again and told her to run away with him.
The mother then went to look for him at his home, but he had already disappeared, with relatives saying he was in Mozambique.
To lure him back to South Africa, the mother told a relative that she would drop all charges and would talk to him.
Describing his arrest, the mother said: “He was arriving by bus from Mozambique and we were there at the bus stop to meet him.
“As he got off, he was arrested. My daughter was so indoctrinated by him that she cried out and said he was sick.”
His cellphone and iPad were seized by the police and handed back to his wife – also a pastor at the church – which she, in turn, gave to the Phiris. They were shocked to find about 100 text messages and numerous voice recordings allegedly of him speaking to the teenager.
The Star heard the tapes. He speaks affectionately to her, saying how special it was to take her virginity, which was so precious.
The Star