Update: "Nigerian pastor Omotoso called me wicked for demanding that my daughters come back home" - Mother of Idols South African twins

The mother of former Idols SA contestants Neliswa and Anele Mxakaza has told of her year-long battle with controversial Nigerian pastor, Evangelist Timothy Omotoso, over her daughters.

The twin sisters, who had backed Omotoso accused of committing a string of crimes, including rape and human trafficking, apologised to the women of South Africa last week. See previous report here

The pastor is now facing rape, sexual assault and human trafficking charges for allegedly luring girls to his Durban mansion and forcing them to perform sexual favours.

The twins from Ridgeview in Durban became famous in 2013 after auditioning on Idols reality TV singing competition. They were invited by the pastor to join his church in 2013.

Their mother, Gloria Mxakaza has spoken for the first time of her anguish of how she tried to get her daughters from the pastor's house.

"From the beginning, I did not like the idea of them living at the pastor's house, I fought with him several times," Mxakaza said.

"At one stage, he [the pastor] called me a wicked woman because I demanded that my daughters should come back home."

Mxakaza said the pastor had been telling her that the girls were "safer and okay" with him than at home.

The pastor and his alleged two accomplices appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court last Monday and their case was postponed to March.

Source: The Sowetan