Nothing prepared anyone listening to SABC radio that day for the utter desolation and despair of the hair-raising howl of pain from the woman in the flame-orange dress.

“For me,” wrote poet Antjie Krog whose recording carried Nomonde Calata’s fathomless anguish to the world, “this crying is the beginning of the Truth Commission — the signature tune, the definitive moment, the ultimate sound of what the process is about ... that sound, it will haunt me forever.”..

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