14
‘during the disability of the creditor’ in s 7(1)(b) in a sense consistent with the
definition of ‘person under disability’ in s 1. See Wulfes v Commercial Union
Assurance Co of SA Ltd supra at 38B-D, sed contra South African Mutual Fire and
General Insurance Co Ltd v Mapipa supra at 607C.)
The plaintiff’s history
[20] The plaintiff was born in 1952. The defendant, her uncle by marriage, is about
36 years older than she is. The plaintiff’s immediate family seems to have lived in
relatively modest circumstances. The defendant, an apparently successful
businessman, played an influential role in the family as a figure of status and respect.
He and his wife were childless but they frequently had the appellant and her siblings
to stay in their home.
[21] The plaintiff’s brother, Jaco, suffered from polio. In November 1958 he was
hospitalized. His parents, who were desirous of giving him their undivided attention,
sent the plaintiff to stay with her maternal aunt, the defendant’s wife. She was six.
(The plaintiff was able to pinpoint the date in evidence because she had kept a letter
her brother wrote to her from hospital.)
[22] One night the defendant came to her bedroom, ostensibly to say goodnight to
her. He touched her private parts. Thus began a long series of assaults on the child
that before long progressed to anal penetration and, by the age of eight, forcible
sexual intercourse. The defendant mystified these dark encounters as ‘a secret
between us’, warned her not to talk about them and threatened her in various ways
particularly vexing to a child. By contrast, during the day the defendant treated the
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