Zuma's accuser called a liar

2006-03-28 13:51

Johannesburg - The woman who said Jacob Zuma raped her was accused of being a liar in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.

"The complainant is in certain respects a liar," the former deputy president's lawyer Kemp J Kemp told the court.

Kemp was asking Judge Willem van der Merwe to discharge his client saying that the State had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman was raped.

The HIV-positive woman alleged Zuma raped her at his Johannesburg home in November last year. However Zuma said they had had consensual sex.

Some examples given that the woman gave false evidence were that she had lied to the court about matriculating and she had lied to Zuma that she would attend a meeting with him that he had asked for after the alleged rape.

She had also told newspapers Zuma had not raped her and that she had not told police before the incident she had visited Zuma in his study that night dressed only in a kanga (wrap).

Kemp said it was also highly improbable that the woman could not remember the name of a boarding master at a Christian college she had attended whom she believed raped her, which led to her falling pregnant.

Earlier this month she testified that she believed the boarding master raped her during an "attack" in which she said she lost consciousness.

She said she had an abortion.

"It seems to be one of the situations where sexual intercourse was being rape-labelled because it suited her," Kemp said.

At the time of her abortion, the practice was not legal in South Africa unless it applied to special conditions, including rape.

Kemp also said she had told the court of how a lawyer Yusuf Dockrat had pushed her to drop the charge but he had testified that he had not done so.

Doctor examined the woman

Zuma's lawyer also said a doctor who had examined the woman after the alleged rape had said she told him she had washed, douched and bathed.

However, she said she only showered.

The woman said she had told the doctor of a stinging pain in her vagina and the doctor said she had not made mention of this.

Kemp also questioned why the woman had failed to say in the police statement that Zuma had held her hands down, which is what she had testified in court.

One would think it would be very important to put this in the statement to back up the rape allegation, Kemp said.

The woman told police she went to sleep after the alleged rape.

However, she testified that she had sent SMS's after the incident.

Kemp said she did not tell police about the incident because they did not mention the alleged rape.

He also questioned why the woman had not left Zuma's house after the alleged rape nor locked her door.

Kemp said she must have felt she had no reason to believe that she was in any danger.

He also said Zuma would have been at more risk of contracting HIV during a rape than while having consensual sex.

HIV infection is easier to contract during violent sex.

Kemp earlier told the court that the alleged victim did not object to intercourse as she did not say 'no'.

- SAPA