The family of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her own oupa say they will be keeping the baby for religious reasons.
Speaking for the first time since the arrest of the 63-year-old man last week, the teen’s mother says the Manenberg family has been left traumatised after discovering the truth.
“We did not have any knowledge that this was happening. My father works as a security guard at night and we live in a Wendy house at the back,” says the mom.
“In February she started sleeping in his room when he wasn’t there and would come to the back in the morning.
“I started noticing that she was not coming back in the mornings and started asking questions, but she never answered me.”
The 37-year-old woman says she became suspicious when her daughter did not menstruate and she made her take a pregnancy test.
“She skipped her period in March and I didn’t think anything because she skipped a month before but then in April it still didn’t come and I made her do a test at home and it came back positive,” she says.
“She kept saying the test is not right so I took her to the clinic where they confirmed she is eight weeks pregnant and I kept asking her who is the father.”
The girl was taken to the police station where she confided in a counsellor and her oupa was arrested.
He is currently being held at Pollsmoor Prison and will return to Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on 18 May for a bail hearing.
The devastated mother says: “I have heard that the family is gathering money to pay for his bail and I am not happy about it. How could he sleep with his own grandchild?
“I have spoken to my daughter and we have decided that she will not go for an abortion. It’s for religious reasons.”