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Jacob Zuma protests innocence

A young child with a mock weapon joins supporters of former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma outside the High Court in Johannesburg on Monday. PHOTO: AP

The man once groomed to be South Africa's next president defended himself on Monday against charges that he raped an HIV-positive family friend and argued in graphic detail that it was consensual sex.

Jacob Zuma, who was sacked as deputy president under a cloud of corruption last June, told a packed courtroom that he had massaged, caressed, kissed and then had intercourse 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 the risk to him from unprotected sex with someone with the AIDS-causing virus was relatively small.

His 31-year-old accuser, who has known Zuma since she was a 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 Nov. 2.

"If she had said no, I would have stopped there and gotten up and left."

Jacob Zuma, former South African deputy president

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 high incidence of rape and the treatment of victims.

Monday's session was the first time that Zuma 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 he never referred to her as his daughter and that in the two months leading up to the incident she frequently sent him mobile phone text messages in which she sent him "lots of love," "hugs" and "kisses."

"That is very wrong for her to say that there was a father-daughter relationship between us," Zuma said. "There was never such a relationship between us," he told the court, speaking through an interpreter in his native Zulu language.

He said she had asked to come to his home that evening and had dinner with his son, daughter and another family friend. He later 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 to rouse her, and she then followed him to 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 pajamas.

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 -- behavior 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.

Two police officers earlier testified Zuma told them the incident took place in the guest room, as claimed by his accuser. But Zuma maintained on Monday that he was never asked the question, only to show them where his accuser was sleeping, his own bedroom and his study.

He said he was surprised to hear she had pressed charges and said he suspected an ulterior motive. He subsequently contacted her and her mother through relatives and friends, apologized to the mother for any emotional distress caused and offered to provide financial support, including helping pay for her study abroad and repairs to a fence, 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 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.
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