NGCOBO J the judicial officer had admonished him or her to speak. This may put the child to an unfortunate choice: either testify and risk the accused carrying out his or her threat, or say nothing. In these circumstances, it would not be surprising for the child to refuse to testify. [104] If the child decides to speak, then the prosecutor will take him or her through his or her evidence. The questioning of a child requires special skills, similar to those required to run day care centres or to teach younger children. Questioning a child in court is no exception: it requires a skill. Regrettably, not all of our prosecutors are adequately trained in this area, although quite a few have developed the necessary understanding and skill to question children in the court room environment. If the questioning by the prosecutor is not skilled, the result is what happened in the Phaswane matter. The following exchange between the prosecutor and the interpreter illustrates the point: “PROSECUTOR: What did you mean when you said that he had slept with you? – He had raped me. What do you mean with rape, we must know what you understand under rape? – Yes I personally do not know what rape is, I heard from people who say that there is a thing called rape. Okay but we need to know what happened, you were tripped and then you fell on the ground and he took out a condom. We must know why do you say you have been raped, what did he do to you? – Rape is sexual intercourse. What is sexual intercourse? – Sexual intercourse is when one person has sex with another person. But we do not know what that means, we need to know what you think what happened, not what you think. You must tells us why do you say that you have been 55