By Songeziwe Mapukata
The 13-year-old Azile Nogaga was bursting with excitement. She was in the house, ready to join her mother to go to her grandmother’s house – but then she was strangled with a metal coat hanger allegedly by her father who is also a bishop.
As the mother was calling for her daughter to hurry, her husband walked out of the house without saying a word and went to the other family house where he allegedly beat up a three-year-old relative with a stick.
Azile was allegedly caught off guard by her 70-year-old father, who is also a bishop at a local Zion church, while changing her uniform after coming back from school.
This has shocked the small village of Emaxelegwini in the Eastern Cape.
The grade 8 teenager from Blythewood Junior Secondary school was a beacon of hope for her family. She was going to receive multiple accolades at school on Thursday, the day after she was murdered.
A family member said the alleged killer has been abusive to his family since he took his pension five years ago.
He was working and based in Cape Town before moving back to the village permanently.
Because of the alleged abuse, Azile’s mother, Khunjulwa Nogaga, had a protection order and domestic violence cases opened against her husband at the local police station.
“After killing Azile, he used the back gate and proceeded to another family house where he found his three-year-old granddaughter whom he beat mercilessly with a stick,” said the relative.
The family member said when he was asked what got into him, the bishop responded:
“You obviously have not seen what I’ve done to the other one in the other house.”
The family member told Scrolla.Africa that the bishop was always angry and nobody knew what his issues were.
“Whenever he fought with community members he would go home and vent his anger on his family,” the relative said.
Child Rights Activist from Khula Community Development Project, Petros Majola, expressed his disgust at the gruesome act.
“Every time we hear of these cases we ask ourselves what exactly it is that we are not doing. However, we will not give up the battle just because there are people on the other side of the battle pulling in the opposite direction”.
Majola is positive that social services will be made available to this family, especially the mother who is due to bury her sister but now has lost a child because of her partner.
The bishop was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder.
He will appear in court on Friday.
Pictured above: Azile Nogaga
Image source: Supplied
