MAPULE RAMASHALA
Chairperson before I proceed may I read an excerpt from the Crisis News and the title is a Woman's Story.  As you can all tell and I quote
This is not a story that makes easy reading, nor easy listening too.  Though the words used are simple and straightforward enough.  It is another of those horrifying stories that one hears out in the field or on advice offices, that seldom reach the press.
The young victim in this case is not a well-known person.  She is an ordinary young girl, and I repeat young girl, bright and fluent in English, not frail or particularly strong.  Just a young woman.  This is a story of a woman who spent nearly a year in detention, who was tortured, sexually abused so badly that soon she did not trust anybody anymore, not even the male doctor who came to examine her.  She did not dare tell the full story to anybody until she was out of jail and out of reach.
 Today there is a sense of empowerment such empowerment that Ms Zingxondo can tell her story in public, in a sense I feel ashamed as if I am a voyeur taking a peek into a brave soldiers private experience.  But Ms Zingxondo wants to tell her story and she is very brave today.
 Ntombizanele I know this is very difficult for you because in a sense you have to relive this.  And in fact when we talked during lunch, you were not sure that you would be able to go with it.  I know I speak for the Chairperson and my colleagues on the panel.  But your story is very humbling indeed.  I am not going to ask you anymore questions, but I am going to ask you if there is anything that you believe that the Commission should know using the  [indistinct]  that I gave you during lunch time to remind you of the horrible experience, if there is anything else that you believe that we should know, would you please proceed.