Zuma gives evidence in rape trial

The man once groomed to be South Africa’s next president defended himself today against charges that he raped an HIV-positive family friend and argued that it was consensual sexual intercourse.

Jacob Zuma, who was sacked as deputy president under a cloud of corruption last June, told a packed courtroom that he had caressed, kissed, massaged and then had sex with the woman, who at no stage tried to resist him.

“If she had said no, I would have stopped there and gotten up and left,” Zuma said, recalling the evening in quiet, measured tones.

Zuma, who once headed South Africa’s moral regeneration project and the National Aids Council, conceded they had not used a condom.

He said he thought that the risk to him from unprotected sex with someone with the Aids virus was relatively small.

His 31-year-old accuser, who has known Zuma since she was a small child and refers to him as “uncle”, says the 63-year-old former freedom fighter abused her trust and raped her at his home in Johannesburg last November 2.

It is the most politically-explosive case since the end of apartheid and has gripped South Africa, with large crowds of Zuma supporters gathering daily in front of the Johannesburg High Court.

It has also cast a spotlight on the problem of rape and the treatment of victims.

Today’s session was the first time that Zuma himself took the stand, after his lawyers tried unsuccessfully last week to have the case dismissed.

Dressed in a dark suit and maroon tie, Zuma tried to demolish the arguments of his accuser that they enjoyed a father-daughter-like relationship.

He said in the two months leading up to the incident they frequently sent each other mobile phone text messages and that she started sending him “hugs”, and “kisses” in the messages.

“That is very wrong for her to say that there was a father-daughter relationship between us,” said Zuma.

“There was never such a relationship between us,” he told the court, speaking in his native Zulu language.

He said that she had asked to come to his home that evening and had dinner with his daughter and another family friend. He retired to his study to work and she went to bed, but told him to wake her up as she needed to talk to him further, he recalled.

He subsequently went to the guest room and roused her and she then went into his bedroom, he said. She was wearing a flimsy wrap without underwear and climbed under his covers to get warm while he changed into his pyjamas.

Zuma maintained that the woman then asked him to massage her with baby oil, which he did. They had sexual intercourse after which she returned to the guest room and he kissed her goodnight.

The woman said she was so shocked by Zuma’s advances that she froze and did not try to resist – behaviour one psychologist said was consistent with rape victims in shock.

But Zuma discounted this. He described her as a strong, independent and assertive woman.

“She could easily push me away,” he said.

He said he was surprised to hear that she had pressed charges as he thought they parted amicably. He subsequently tried to contact her and her mother through relatives and friends and had offered to help pay for her study, meet household expenses or make some sort of financial commitment, which is the traditional Zulu way of settling disputes.

Earlier in the trial, the accuser testified under cross-examination that she was raped by other people three times as a child and had an abortion after being raped by someone else at the age of 19.

Zuma’s attorney Kemp Kemp argued she had a history of making false rape accusations.

Women’s groups fear that the trial, and the aggressive probe into the woman’s sexual history, will deter rape victims from reporting the crime in future. South Africa has the highest rape rate in the world – four times higher than in the US – with just over 55,000 cases reported to police in 2003-04.

Only an estimated one case in nine is reported.

Zuma once seemed certain to succeed President Thabo Mbeki at the helm of Africa’s economic and diplomatic powerhouse. But Mbeki dismissed his deputy in June after Zuma was implicated in a bribery scandal surrounding a government arms deal.

At the trial today, Zuma reiterated his view that the charges were part of a political conspiracy to deny him the presidency.

Despite the rape trial and separate corruption trial in July, he remains deputy president of the governing African National Congress and still commands widespread loyalty from many black South Africans.

He told the court he became friends with the father of his accuser when the two were sentenced in 1963 to 10 years’ imprisonment on Robben Island for their activities in the ANC’s military wing.

The two families remained close during their years in exile during the apartheid era.

The case was due to continue tomorrow.