Zuma lawyer attacks accuser
2006-03-28 12:28
Johannesburg - Lawyers for Jacob Zuma asked a court on Tuesday to drop a rape charge against the former deputy president, arguing that the alleged victim did not clearly say "no" to sex.
Once the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma is accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman at his Johannesburg home in November but the defence contends that they had consensual sex without a condom.
"She is quite capable of saying 'no' to him," defence lawyer Kemp J Kemp told the High Court after requesting an early dismissal of the case.
"She doesn't say 'no'. That is the crucial difference in whether we are talking consent," he said. "The absence of 'no' interprets she is not objecting to it."
Kemp attacked the credibility of the alleged victim, who took the stand this month to testify that she was paralysed with fear when Zuma entered the guest bedroom where she was sleeping on November 2 and raped her.
He said she was an "accomplished liar" and that she had conceded during her testimony that Zuma "could have thought it was consent."
The lawyer also argued that the onus was not on Zuma to seek her explicit consent, saying: "Many women regard it as unromantic to be asked explicitly if they want to have intercourse."
Zuma, 63, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape in a trial that has dealt a severe blow to his political career, which already hung in the balance after he was fired as deputy president last year in a corruption scandal which will take him back to court in July.
Zuma has suggested that the rape and corruption charges are part of a political plot to prevent him from succeeding Mbeki when he steps down in 2009.
If convicted of rape, Zuma faces a possible sentence of between five and 15 years in jail.