Deputy Speaker, South Africa is an extremely violent society. Criminals opportunistically aim at the soft targets that the state should protect with all means necessary at its disposal. The soft targets are defenceless women, children and especially the elderly.
I want to illustrate this point by telling you of the case of Mama Mandisa Tsotsi. At 77 years, she is a retired nurse, former APLA cadre, a military veteran, a lawyer, a community worker and an activist for the rights of women, a grandmother, a parent and more than anything else, a patriot.
She comes from a political family. Her late father, her brother and herself, were in exile. She was sexually attacked by what could be a youngster from the neighbourhood in rural Tsomo in the Eastern Cape. The rural areas are no longer a safe haven for the elderly.