Zuma's HIV status in dock?

2006-04-02 20:00

S'tembiso Msomi

Johannesburg - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma might have to reveal to the world his own HIV status - negative or positive - if he takes the stand on Monday in his rape trial in the High Court here, reports City Press.

If he takes the stand in his own defence he certainly will hold many aspects of his future in his hands.

So, the African National Congress deputy president might have to convince the court that the sex between himself and his 31-year-old, HIV-positive accuser was consensual and that he had had no intention of harming her.

If he takes the stand, the prosecution is expected to give him a tough time during cross-examination.

They are likely to grill him about his own sexual history, and his version of what happened at his Forest Town, Johannesburg, house on the night of November 2.

And, they also are likely to ask why, if the sex was by agreement, he did not use a condom as he knew the complainant - dubbed Kwezhi (star) by women's-rights groups - to be HIV-positive.

The State may even ask him about his own HIV status.

Lawyer also in firing line

Zuma also possibly might have to explain why he "apologised" to the complainant's mother and was prepared "to pay compensation" if he knew that he had done nothing wrong.

His claim that the sex happened in his own bedroom also will be challenged as the woman had said it took place in the guestroom.

Another person likely to come under fire from the prosecution is Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley.

Judge Willem van der Merwe told Zuma on Thursday that a conviction on the evidence already led was possible, meaning his testimony this week will have to extricate him from conviction.

'Poor-quality evidence' rejected

But, judging by Judge Van der Merwe's remarks when he turned down the defence's application for the rape charge to be dropped, Zuma's acquittal effectively hinges on his own testimony.

The judge rejected Kemp's assertion that the State's evidence was of "such poor quality" that it would not have been enough to convict the former deputy president.

He said that, based on the State's evidence alone, the court could make a finding of mens rea (criminal intention) against Zuma.

Disputed evidence, given by police investigators, also indicated Zuma had "pointed out" the guestroom as "the alleged scene of the crime".

But, Zuma's counsel, Kemp J Kemp, wants the police testimony to be ruled inadmissible as police procedures had not been followed when the "pointing out" apparently was done.

The judge said last week he would rule on the admissibility of the police evidence at the end of the trial.

Radio interview remarks

This means the defence might have to call Hulley as one of the witnesses to dispute the police testimony.

If Hulley takes the stand, he also might have to explain his remarks during a radio interview in which he had claimed not to know anything about the rape charge.

This was even though police already had been to see him and Zuma at the politician's traditional home in Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

City Press understands that the defence's witness line-up includes Zuma's 22-year-old daughter Duduzile who was in the house on the night of November 2.

Others are a former ANC guerilla known as "Mashaya", believed to have been the accuser's ex-boyfriend, Durban church minister April Mbambo and a pyschologist.

Was dressed 'inappropriately'

Also on the list if one of two women who presided in an ANC "trial" of two men accused of raping the accuser when she was about 13 years old.

Duduzile is expected to tell the court that the accuser had come to her room on the night of the alleged rape and asked to be accompanied to the study where Zuma was working.

She would also tell the court that she believed the complainant was wearing only a kanga (wrap) without any underwear and that she had thought this was "inappropriate".

Duduzile also is expected to tell the court that she left the accuser alone with Zuma because she had wanted to speak to him privately.

"Mashaya" and the other witnesses who knew the accuser during their days in exile are expected to testify about her past claims of rape.

Church minister could be called

This, the defence hopes, would show the court that the woman had a history of making "false" rape claims.

Mbambo, who knew the woman as a member of his church in the mid-1990s, would testify about how she had made claims of "attempted rape" after he had caught her and a young member of his parish about to engage in a sexual act.

He is expected to tell the court how the woman apparently had accused him of sexual assault after he rejected her initial rape story.

- City Press