Convicted gospel star’s DNA scandal

The teenager told police that she fell pregnant when the married artist raped her after giving her alcohol in Tweespruit late last year.

The DNA results, which were released last week, came after the musician was convicted of statutory rape and handed a five-year suspended sentence by the Tweespruit Regional Court in Free State.

The first DNA tests were conducted after a case of rape was opened against the artist in March this year.

A second round of tests were taken after the teenager sued Pali for maintenance two months ago, accusing him of being a “deadbeat dad”.

“All the tests revealed that I’m not the father of the child,” Pali confirmed to City Press.

“I had reconciled myself with the fact that I’m her father. Like any other father, there were emotional attachments between me and the child, and to discover that I’m not the father was so devastating. I’m so hurt. My heart is bleeding,” he said.

The platinum-selling artist also admitted that he was too drunk to remember the events of that night even though he admitted he was guilty in court.

“You remember when I told you guys [the media] when this thing came out that I didn’t know if I slept with this woman. But you, the media, wanted to blacken my reputation and said I slept with her. Perhaps I pleaded guilty because I was confused and wanted this thing to go away,” he said.

Free State police spokesperson Sergeant Martin Xuma confirmed the results of the paternity tests.

Xuma said Pali was at liberty to appeal the rape conviction, but would battle because he had already pleaded guilty to the offence.

“We did not arrest him because of the child. We arrested him based on the evidence we had against him. That is why even in court we did not say that he was the father of the child,” he said.

– TeamTalk