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"My life of pain since that lashing!" - Daily Sun

The front page and lead story of SA's largest daily newspaper, October 10 2013

Daily Sun (October 10 2013) - IT HAPPENED three weeks ago, but the memory of the 100 lashes inflicted on her by an angry woman still haunts Nompilo Vilakazi. The video of her brutal ordeal was headlined in Daily Sun yesterday and seen all over Mzansi.

BUT THE WOMAN WHO BEAT HER HAS FLED FROM THE VILLAGE!

Nompilo's tormentor, a 22-year-old woman called Amahle Mdlalose, is nowhere to be found. She lured Nompilo to her house in Nceceni Village, near Nquthu, KZN, and accused her of trying to date her boyfriend.

When the girl denied it, she was punched, kicked and beaten with a sjambok while - at Amahle's request - a friend made a video of the attack. Now she has been discharged from hospital, Nompilo (15), is trying to put her life together again. "Ever since the attack, my life has been hell. I can't sleep because I have nightmares," the brave girl told Daily Sun at her home in Nceceni.

"I still have terrible headaches and nosebleeds. I have only been to school once since the attack and that day pupils thought that I was a ghost. There were rumours that I had died after the attack."

She will never forget the day of the attack. According to Nompilo, a classmate asked her to go with her to Amahle's place.

"I had no reason not to go with her because I had done nothing wrong." She was shocked when she walked into the house and her friend locked the door. "She betrayed me. She took me there knowing that Amahle was going to beat me up and she sat and laughed while I was being beaten."

She said Amahle was already angry and she punched and kicked her before whipping out the sjambok. "I begged her to stop. She just wanted to hit me on the head. I tried to block the sjambok with my hands so that my head wouldn't get injured."

She said the girl who took the video, a sister of Amahle's boyfriend, was not in the house when the attack started. "When she got back from school, Amahle gave her the phone to make a video.

"She said she wanted the whole world to see the video and I guess she is getting what she wanted."

Nompilo said she can't concentrate and when the headaches start, she feels like she is losing her mind. "Every time I close my eyes I just see her beating me. The scars on my body may go away but the mental scars are always going to be there. "And when people talk about videos, I just go to the place where I was helpless and bleeding on the floor."

She said Amahle wanted her to wash off the blood before she left the house so that people couldn't see she was bleeding.

"As for her boyfriend, he is a scarfaced taxi driver. I hate him for supporting what that woman did to me and I hate her for beating me up."

Nompilo's grandfather, Luphineas Vilakazi (63) told Daily Sun the boyfriend had tried to bribe him with R200 to forget about the beating.

"I chased him away with his money," said Luphineas. "When I think of what happened to my grand-daughter I just cry. What they did to her was cruel, she didn't deserve that."

The boyfriend's grandmother (73), said: " I was sitting outside the house when I heard Nompilo screaming.

"I tried to rush inside but the door was locked. I failed to save her and it broke my heart to hear her scream like that because I am a mother too. This woman Amahle is not my daughter-in-law.  "We didn't pay lobola," she said.

) Kwazulu-Natal provincial police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said: "Since the case has been re-opened, the police are going to summon the suspect to the Nquthu Magistrates Court for an appearance."

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

The Daily Sun is South Africa's largest daily newspaper with an average circulation of 287 222 (Audit Bureau of Circulations 2nd Quarter 2013) and a readership of 5.7m (as per AMPS 2012ab). Its Facebook page can be accessed here. It can be followed on Twitter here. To find about advertising on the Daily Sun click here.

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