Zuma to sue over rape trial coverage

Former Deputy President Jacob Zuma plans to sue South African media for millions of pounds over coverage of his rape trial, news reports said today.

Among those targeted are newspapers, a radio station and award-winning cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro.

Members of the Independent Newspapers group and their staff alone are being sued for nearly £10m , according to the Johannesburg-based Star newspaper, a member of the group.

Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

Zuma was widely criticised for comments he made during the rape trial, including telling the court that he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman and then showered to reduce the risk of contracting the disease.

Zuma was acquitted in May of charges that he raped the woman, but many people fear his statements may have caused lasting damage to Aids prevention strategy in one of the world’s most infected countries

Shapiro, who works under the same “Zapiro,” is being sued for around £1m for three cartoons that ran in Independent Newspapers during the trial. He dismissed the action as a “cheap publicity stunt.”

“I’m not losing any sleep over this,” he was quoted as saying in The Star. “We have freedom of speech in this country, and satirists should not be made to shut up.”

Star editor Moegsien Williams said the legal action would not stifle “critical examination of a man who has ambitions to become president of South Africa.”

Johannesburg-based Highveld Stereo radio station was targeted for £300,000 for broadcasting a satirical song about Zuma. But the amount was increased to £500,000 when the station repeated the song on Monday as word of the lawsuits spread and broadcast a comedy sketch depicting the upcoming court battle with Zuma.

A number of other media outlets have also been targeted.

Zuma was dismissed last year after he was implicated in the graft conviction of his friend and financial adviser, Shabir Shaik, but remains deputy president of the governing African National Congress party.

A judge ruled Zuma was aware of Shaik’s efforts to facilitate a yearly payment of £35,000 on his behalf from French weapons company Thint Holdings – formerly Thomson CSF – to deflect investigations into a 1999 arms deal. Zuma and Thint go on trial for corruption July 31.

Also today, a South African judge dismissed Thint’s application to have a search warrant declared invalid and documents seized from its offices in August returned, the South African Press Association reported.

But Judge Ben du Plessis ordered investigators to lodge all copies of a detailed plan of company director Pierre Moynot’s home with the registrar of the court for security reasons.