People still ask me: But didn’t Zuma really rape her?
If I asked Zuma, he would reply that he did not. And if I asked Khwezi, she would say that Zuma did rape her. Which is it?
Judge [Willem] Van der Merwe found that Zuma did not rape Khwezi. Why then, as Van der Merwe asked, would a 31-year-old woman have gone through the trauma of the trial if she had not been raped?
Was Khwezi really so mercenary or so disturbed that she would go through the whole ordeal just to save face? By the time she came to court, had she, like Macbeth, “stepped in so far” that “returning” would be as tedious as carrying on? Is it possible that what she imagined had happened became reality for her, or even that she was so desperately in need of attention that any attention would do?
Van der Merwe’s response to his own question was that one had to look at Khwezi’s history, which included a history of falsely accusing men of rape. When she was confronted with these allegations, she denied knowing the men, or in some instances denied the accusations. This, Van der Merwe said, was because she could not admit that she had previously made false rape claims because then she would be found out. He said it was clear she had experienced previous trauma. After having sex she might have felt guilty and ashamed, and that was why she accused Zuma of rape. Evidence, he added, had been given that the woman was mentally ill. (This was an exaggeration on the judge’s part; her mother had said that she received “psychological” treatment in Zambia.)
Perhaps that is the answer, or the answers, to the question. Khwezi was not raped; she had sex with Zuma; and then, perhaps because she felt “used” for the umpteenth time in her life, responded in the way she had responded since she was a child.
Yet Khwezi continued to insist that Zuma had raped her and her story, as regards Zuma and the evening of November 2, was not incredible. And why did she claim that they had sex in the guest bedroom (though she might have worked out that admitting that she had gone to Zuma’s bedroom would not put her in a very good light)? Why was Commissioner [Norman] Taioe so adamant that Zuma had told him that the guest bedroom was “where it happened”? Taioe might have screwed things up — he did; his evidence was found inadmissible for bureaucratic reasons — but he actually went on record as saying that he was a “Zuma supporter”. He had, in other words, no reason to lie.
I believe that what happened to Zuma and Khwezi is what I rather lamely call “real life”. I think that, partially because she comes from a different generation to Zuma, she did not (consciously) understand the implications of her behaviour — loving smss, affection, kanga sans underwear. And Zuma, because he comes from a different generation, did not understand that what he read as sexual provocation was merely the way some young people behave. (Khwezi was 31 years old, but some 31-year-olds have the emotional age and social awareness of a 12-year-old.)
So Zuma proceeded to execute the mandate that, as far as he knew, she had given him. And she, in my reading, was taken aback: it was not something that she expected. He was, in her mind, whether it was “factually” true or not, a kind of father figure and she was unaware of the signals she had (in his view) been giving. She was so taken aback that she didn’t fight or scream.
Besides, Zuma didn’t attack her or hurt her; he merely went ahead and had his way with her, as countless men do every night of the week with countless women. It’s the way of the world. But I don’t think sexual intercourse was something Khwezi was especially interested in.
Was that rape? According to the law, if she had in any way indicated that she did not want to have sex, and he went ahead, it was rape. But Khwezi conceded that she had not said anything; she said she “had frozen”. I believe it was what happens in real life all the time — the only problem having been that Khwezi simply couldn’t or didn’t want to deal with the way of the world any more, and her friends told her that she didn’t have to do so.
A few days after Van der Merwe delivered his verdict, Zuma apologised to the nation for aspects of his behaviour; Khwezi and her mother left the country to live in Holland.