Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-05-14

A father accused of raping, sodomising and killing his seven-year-old epileptic daughter appeared in the Nelspruit Circuit of the Gauteng North Court in Mpumalanga.

Sunnyboy Phakimpi Mnisi, 32, from KaMhlushwa near Malalane, pleaded guilty to murder and pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape.

Mnisi voluntarily admitted that he unlawfully caused the death of his daughter, Ayanda Nokuvela Mnisi, 7, by strangling her after she started having seizures.

He admitted to forcefully hitting Ayanda's head against the floor on 16 August 2012, and running away after he realised that she was dead.

Mnisi testified that he then called his mother and informed her that he had killed his own daughter.

When State prosecutor George Baloyi asked the court to keep the accused in police custody as he had pleaded guilty to the murder charge, Mnisi refused to be detained.

"No, no, no! This will not happen. I am not going inside there. You asked me to plead, and now you want to lock me up. Call my mother first or this is not going to happen," Mnisi said to the court orderly.

Before the case was adjourned, Mnisi's sister, Norma Prudence Mnisi, testified that she received a call from their mother informing her that Mnisi had killed Ayanda.

"As I was a member of the Community Policing Forum (CPF), we went to his house to investigate and found the doors wide open. After entering, we found the child lying on the floor inside his bedroom. She was already dead," she said.

Norma said the naked child's face was covered with a T-shirt and her private parts with her school dress.

"I walked out of the house and contacted my sector manager and the police. The child's mother passed away a long time ago and the girl lived with our mother.

"The accused arrived home the next day crying, after his brother fetched him from the veld where he was hiding.

“He apologised to the family, saying he had done something wrong by killing the child. He was shaking and did not say much," Norma testified.

The trial continues. – SAPA

(Twitter: @Faizie143)