A Cape woman has been charged with abduction and rape in connection with the marriage of a 15-year-old granddaughter and a 50-year-old man, according to Eastern Cape Cops.

The man has also been arrested and faces the same charges.

Meanwhile, the Mthatha police’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit along with children’s rights group, the Khula Community Development Project, rescued the teen on Tuesday.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana said the child was taken to a Thuthuzela Care Centre and would be kept in a place of safety.

The grandmother and man will appear in court soon.

It is alleged that the woman arranged for her grandmother to leave Nonesi Junior Secondary School in Nyandeni, where she was in Grade 7, to marry the man.

According to Khula Community Development Project director Petros Majola, lobola negotiations between the two families were going to be held later this week.

Majola said the man was a church prophet and that the girl and her grandmother attended his church. Police described him as a church leader.

Majola said: “The girl child had been staying with her so-called husband for a number of days and the matter came to our attention as reported by a whistleblower, who asked to remain anonymous.”

Majola added:

Arranged and or forced marriages also, known as Ukuthwala, still exist in the Eastern Cape and pose a huge challenge and threat to young girls as this is done without their consent.

As part of this, he said, parents usually make their own arrangements and find husbands for their children while the children are not part of the talks.

“We vow to eradicate Ukuthwala and all forms of arranged marriages in the province of the Eastern Cape, and we call upon the government and the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders to work with us. We are told that traditional leaders have some programmes to address the scourge, but I so wish they could invite us and share their strategies as this could make us understand what they are doing,” Majola said.

The Khula Community Development Project has encouraged members of the public to come forward and report incidents.

“We further make a call to the honourable MEC for Education, Fundile Gade, to create a space for these children if they want to go back to mainstream education after being rescued.

As the organization, we will continue to a creation level of awareness and engage communities so that people do away with forced and/or arranged marriages,” Majola said.