The complainant in the State v Zuma said she was already asleep when the former deputy president entered her room. (It is against the law to name a rape accuser, unless she gives consent.) He offered to tuck her in and massage her. She said to him: "I'm already asleep, I'll see you tomorrow."Zuma replied that he could massage her while she was sleeping. She again said she was sleeping. Zuma then removed the blanket she was sleeping under.
"I was lying on my side. He started to massage my shoulders. He then held me on my shoulders and turned me around facing upwards. I then felt his knees on both sides of my legs. He once again started massaging her shoulders, "and I said 'no'. After I said this, he didn't stop massaging me. At that point I opened my eyes and saw that he was naked."
News24.com — The Zuma File | Accuser gives graphic details
Jacob Zuma's defence was set to go on the attack today, seeking to expose gaps or evasions in the graphic State evidence by his accuser on the first day of the rape trial. Zuma pleaded not guilty to rape in the Johannesurg High Court yesterday. The State alleges he raped a 31-year-old woman he has known since her childhood at his home in Forest Town, Johannesburg, on November 2 last year. Zuma has admitted sex took place but says it was consensual.The HIV-positive complainant, an Aids activist, gave her evidence in camera yesterday. She said Zuma had raped her despite her protestations. ... A more complicated and sensitive issue with which the defence will have to deal is the allegation by the complainant that Zuma had raped her without a condom, even though he knew she was HIV-positive. Until he was dismissed as vice-president last June by the president, Thabo Mbeki, Zuma was in charge of the government's "moral regeneration" campaign and was chairman of the South African National AIDS Council.
Cape Argus | Zuma accuser faces grilling
"Burn the bitch", yelled supporters of South Africa's former deputy president Jacob Zuma outside the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday, as the woman he is accused of raping prepared to testify. Faced with these attitudes, it is little wonder that just one in nine women raped in South Africa report the crime, say activists.The explosive rape trial of the man once tipped to succeed President Thabo Mbeki has thrown a spotlight on sexual violence in a country with one of the world's highest rates of rape. Activists say the case illustrates a deep-seated misogyny in South Africa, where rape -- particularly when the accused is known to the victim -- is often dismissed as a private matter, and many accuse women of bringing violence upon themselves.
Some 55,000 rapes were reported in South Africa last year but since only one in nine women raped actually report the crime, according to activist group People Against Women Abuse, the figure is closer to 450,000, in a population of 45 million.
Reuters | Zuma trial highlights S.Africa's rape crisis
