CHAIRPERSON
Mama Edith Mpande, you have shared with us and, indeed, have shared with the nation the pain of losing your son.  To see you shed tears makes us realise, again, the price that mothers had to pay for the freedom, for the liberation of our land.  Mothers paid, indeed, the highest price, because in most of the cases they did not even know what their sons were doing and they had to be confronted by dead bodies which they had to collect and bury like you did to Makwenkwe.  We wish to convey, on behalf of the Commission, our deepest sympathy and an assurance that we will, as far as we are able, pursue every case that is placed before us.  There is, of course, no guarantee that we will be able to solve every case.  We are beginning to realise that there are a number of cases which are going to remain unsolved given the time allocated to us as a
Commission, but we are grateful that you have brought this case to us and we will do what we can to answer the questions that you have raised in your statement.  I do wish, however, to point out that our office has noted that your statement is very scanty, that they would like to have more information, more background information than is provided in the statement.  So, I wish that, perhaps, as you are led down from the stand, somebody from the staff of the Commission must sit down with you and, indeed, get the details which are essential for us to have if we are to have any meaningful investigation of your matter.  For now, we salute you and we thank you for coming to testify.