4 [6] During January 2010 the appellant noticed the complainant, then 14 years old, and decided that she would make a suitable wife. They had neither spoken to nor even been introduced to each other at that stage; and the complainant was entirely unaware of who the appellant was or what his intentions were. She had just commenced Grade 7 at her local school. The only reason why the appellant even had occasion to notice the complainant was because she had been sent by a male family member, whom she referred to as her uncle, to fetch a cigarette for him from a house at which the appellant was present at the time. The complainant’s father is deceased and she lived with her maternal grandmother and other family members because her mother worked in a nearby village or town and was only able to come home to visit at the end of each month. [7] On the same day that the appellant first saw the complainant, he requested his family to start the traditional lobola negotiations with the complainant’s family. He and two of his family members then approached the complainant’s male family members (in a neighbouring village) to start the negotiations. It would appear that they were concluded over the course of one day. Early the following morning the complainant was called to a gathering of various male members of the two families and informed by one of them, who was not known to her, that she was to be married in another village.