The father, like he did every Sunday, asked his son to accompany him to church. As usual, the son, Tsepo Dlamini, refused. 

FATALLY STABBED 

Petrus Nyathi (62) went to church alone. When Nyathi came back from church, Tsepo started an argument with him and asked him to never tell him about church ever again. The argument escalated and the son allegedly fatally stabbed his father at their house in Kamhlushwa, outside Malelane in Mpumalanga, on Sunday evening.

Neighbour ,Priyanka Matsebula, said they heard a commotion coming from the house and they stood outside to listen to what the commotion was about. "Sometimes we would reprimand the son not to fight with his father as stayed together, with no one else," Matsebula said. She added that they were shocked to see the father coming out of the house running. "We realised that there was something wrong when he fell to the ground at the gate. We rushed to him to see what was happening and found him with multiple stab wounds. When we approached the son, he tried to run away before the community cornered him. He then stabbed himself four times," she said. 

AVOIDING COURT 

Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson, Captain Magonseni Nkosi, said that both father and son had an argument over going to church on Sunday morning. "The misunderstanding was resolved amicably by both parties. Later, when the father came back from church, the son called him inside the house. It was during this time that the son allegedly took a knife and stabbed his father multiple times," Nkosi said. He added that the son also sustained some stab wounds after he allegedly stabbed himself several times too. Tsepo was expected to appear before the Nkamazi Magistrates Court on Monday but when prison officials went to fetch him, they allegedly found that he had smeared himself with poo. "The court then suggested that he appears in court in absentia. The court ordered that he be taken for psychiatric evaluation on 24 July," Nkosi said.