Durban - The father who had been on the run since Tuesday after allegedly hanging his four children has been arrested.
KwaZulu-Natal police said the 44-year-old man was arrested in KwaDabeka, west of Durban.
"He will face four counts of murder," police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said.
Ayakha Jiyane and her siblings; Kwezi, Siphesihle and Kuhlekonke Mpungose who have been described as warm and loving children were all found hanged on Tuesday.
It is alleged that the father picked up three of the children, aged four, six and 10, from school earlier in the day. He then allegedly hanged the children before going to pick up his wife's oldest daughter from school.
It is alleged that after picking the children up, the man hung the three smaller children in the family home in Wybebank and then took the teenager to a bush near West Germany where she was hung from a tree.
The KwaZulu-Natal Social Development MEC Nohlanhla Khoza was visiting the mother of the four children in Pietermaritzburg.
Khoza said she was outraged and saddened by the deaths of the children.
The man who had three biological children aged four, six and 10 with the women who also had a 16-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
It is suspected that her husband, who she is in the process of divorcing, killed the three children she had with him, and abducted her teenage daughter from a previous relationship from school.
“We want to see this man behind bars to pay for his sin. Police must work day and night to track him down so he can face the full might of the law. It’s clear that this murder of these innocent children was premeditated because he abducted them from school. There is no justification, whatsoever, to the murder of children in such a brutal manner regardless of whatever differences may have existed between their parents," Khoza said.
"We need parents to accept if things are not working out in their relationship and move on with their lives without compromising the lives of innocent children,” added Khoza.
She said communities cannot have peace while criminals continue to abuse, rape and murder children.
“We convey our deepest condolences to the bereaved family. We have trust in our law enforcement agencies that they will track down this callous man so he can be put behind bars immediately and justice takes its course."
The Department of Social Development has dispatched a team of Social Workers to offer psycho-social support and relief service to the mother of the children.