After spending six months with her children in POWA's women's shelter she is now self-sufficient. She works as the receptionist at POWA's main office and rents her own apartment in Hillbrow, an urban suburb of Johannesburg. Segona and her two children share the apartment with her boyfriend of eight months. He is her first boyfriend since her break-up with her husband. Although Segona had initial difficulty with dating, she is growing more comfortable with her lover and the couple is even beginning to enjoy a sexual relationship. However, experiencing love is a different matter.

"I don't have love anymore," said Segona, who admits she lies to her new beau about feeling affection for him. "I think it's nice for me to just lie and go on with my life. Maybe love will come someday."

Segona bears no physical signs of ever being traumatized and said physical abuse is no longer a part of her daily routine. But she has promised her lover that she will kill him if he tries to harm her. She also admits that there are still remnants of her abusive relationship in her life.

For the past year, her 13-year-old son has been in and out of the hospital for various feigned injuries. Last week, Segona realized that her son was psychologically damaged from years of watching her being abused. She plans to take him to counseling.

Segona's 9-year-old daughter is too young to remember her father's rage. But Segona remembers well. Makotoko Makotoko, whom she has not seen for a year and six months, won't let her forget. Recently he telephoned her and threatened to kill her. It is a promise she believes he will keep.

"I'm waiting for him. When I see him maybe he's going to kill me," said Segona. "I was afraid of him, but not now. This time, I'm going to put up a fight."

Gerntholtz hopes women like Segona will allow the law to fight for them. But she realizes that the present government is not as focused on women's issues as it could be.

"We have some power but not a lot," she said of the Commission. "At the end of the day, we're very much reliant on who's in power."

Still, women may have more power than they realize, particularly with national elections scheduled for June. "The majority of people who registered (to vote) were women," said Gerntholtz. "And yet, nobody's regarding them as an important political constituency at all."

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