Defence concludes arguments in Zuma trial

The most sensational South African trial since the end of apartheid ended today with defence demands for former deputy president Jacob Zuma to be acquitted of “highly improbable” charges that he raped an HIV-positive family friend.

Judge Willem van der Merwe said he would deliver his verdict – which will be broadcast live on television and radio – on Monday.

Testimony in the trial in Johannesburg has gripped the nation, focusing attention on such sensitive issues as rape and Aids, as well as politics.

Zuma is accused of raping the 31-year-old Aids activist at his home last November. The 64-year-old former freedom fighter said they had consensual sex.

“The complainant’s version is highly improbable,” defence attorney Kemp J Kemp told the Johannesburg High Court. “There is nothing improbable about the accused’s version.”

Based on testimony from her former acquaintances and close scrutiny of her sexual history, Kemp concluded that the woman had a “propensity to make false accusations of rape”.

“That surely is one of the most dangerous, unreliable combinations to base a conviction on,” he said.

In her closing arguments earlier, Prosecutor Charin de Beer had described Zuma’s testimony that his accuser tried to entice him with flirtatious cell phone text messages and by wearing a knee-length skirt as “fanciful” and dismissed his allegations of a politically motivated conspiracy as “unsubstantiated conjecture”.

Zuma supporters say the rape charge is part of a plot to destroy his lingering hopes of becoming president. He was fired last year and goes on trial in June on corruption charges but is still popular and remains deputy president of the ruling African National Congress.

He has known the woman since she was a small child and was in exile with her family when South Africa was under apartheid rule.

She has accused Zuma of abusing her faith in him as a father figure, saying he had listened to her problems and given her advice since the death of her own father. Kemp denied that they had a such a close relationship.

Kemp also sought to cast doubt on her allegations that she did not resist the sexual advances because she was so shocked and traumatised that she froze. He pointed out that she herself testified that she turned her head.

“It seemed like an odd sort of freezing,” he told the court.

Kemp rejected the complainant’s arguments that she would not have agreed to sexual intercourse because she considered herself a lesbian. He said her preference for women did not preclude men.

The trial has cast a focus on rape in South Africa, which has the world’s highest reported rate.

Tuesday’s proceedings were briefly interrupted when a woman in the public gallery stood up and asked the judge for help, saying she had been repeatedly abused.

It has also focussed attention on Aids in a country where up to six million people are estimated to have the virus.

Zuma earlier told the court he was not infected with Aids and had unprotected sex because he thought there was only minimal risk of catching the virus from the woman.

He also said he showered afterward because he believed it would reduce the risk still further, comments which were condemned by health experts as dangerously irresponsible.

Kemp rejected the prosecution’s reasoning that Zuma had lied about his HIV status and was indeed infected with the virus. He said this argument was “totally flawed”. He said his client had behaved reasonably in taking a shower.