Zuma innocent of rape

2006-05-08 15:08

Johannesburg - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has been acquitted of rape in the Johannesburg High Court.

The nearly two-month trial of the populist politician was marked by rowdy rival protests by his supporters and gender activists, and thousands of Zuma supporters turned out on Sunday for a fund-raising rally to benefit his legal fund.

Zuma, 64, is facing a separate trial on graft charges starting in July.

Zuma was accused of raping a 31-year-old family friend at his Johannesburg home last November. He has conceded he had sex with his accuser, an HIV-positive Aids activist, but said it was consensual.

President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as deputy president last year after he was implicated in the Shaik corruption scandal, and he was later formally charged with graft.

Zuma's dismissal raised tensions within the ANC, fanned by Zuma's own charge that the corruption case was part of a political smear campaign designed to prevent him from succeeding Mbeki as president in 2009. - Reuters

- News24