Polokwane - A man hanged his two daughters and then himself after an alleged domestic dispute in Polokwane on Saturday night, Limpopo police said.
Limpopo police management had strongly condemned the incident that occurred at about 10pm at Ngaleng village in the Ga-Mamabolo area in the Mankweng policing precinct outside Polokwane, Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said on Sunday.
It was alleged that the man and his wife had a domestic dispute last year and eventually separated. The woman took her two children and went to her parental home in Sekgosese near Giyani.
"On Saturday, the 22nd June 2019, the children went back to Mankweng to visit their father for the school holidays and upon their arrival the man allegedly called his wife and they had a conflict telephonically," Ngoepe said.
"Subsequent to this telephonic conflict, the father allegedly turned against the children and hanged them one by one in separate rooms before he fled the scene. The police were summoned and reacted swiftly. The initial police investigations and manhunt for the man ensued until he was found hanged in a house within the area," Ngoepe said.
The two girls were aged eight and five, and the father was 38 years old. Police had opened two cases of murder and an inquest docket for further investigations, Ngoepe said.
Limpopo acting police commissioner Maj-Gen Jan Scheepers strongly condemned the "continuing brutal acts of violent crimes perpetrated against children in some parts of the province".
Members of the community were advised to seek professional assistance when they encountered social-related problems in their lives rather than resorting to killings, especially directed at innocent children, Scheepers said.