The woman who accuses Jacob Zuma of rape had a sexual relationship at the age of 13, but it did not involve penetration, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Friday.
Nzwaki Siqashe told the court under cross-examination that 31-year-old Khwezi, as she has been dubbed by women rights’ groups, was examined by a doctor in 1988 after accusing a man of raping her.
The doctor found that penetration had not taken place, and Siqashe and another woman who were investigating the allegations came to the conclusion that the man, identified only as Godfrey, had only rubbed his penis against Khwezi’s thighs.
Earlier Siqashe told the court that Khwezi had gone to the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) offices in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1988 and complained that she had been assaulted by the girlfriend of a man she had been staying with.
The secretary general of Sactu ordered an investigation into the allegations.
She said Khwezi told her that Godfrey had raped her but she did not know why the girlfriend had assaulted her.
Siqashe and another woman involved in the investigation then approached Godfrey. He said that he only realised that Khwezi was being assaulted when she started crying. He was under the impression that his girlfriend was talking to the child because she used to disappear.
Siqashe told the court she had asked Godfrey about the rape, but he had denied it. The two women then told Khwezi that Godfrey had denied raping her.
She then told them at one stage she had had a sore leg and her mother had asked Godfrey to massage it. Her mother then went to bed because she was tired and it was on that day that Godfrey allegedly started raping her.
Siqashe said Khwezi had told her she had not told her mother about the rape because she was afraid of her.
The complainant was then taken away from Godfrey’s custody. The two women went back to Godfrey and he then told them that he had not raped Khwezi, but they had had consensual sex. They told him that he did not have the right to have a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. He replied that she had initiated the affair.
He also said that Khwezi’s mother was aware of their relationship because she had found them in bed together.
The mother had told him not to be ”surprised by what was taking place because the complainant was missing her father”.
They then talked to Khwezi again and she confirmed to them that she was having an intimate relationship with Godfrey.
A regional political committee recommended that Godfrey should be punished for having a relationship with a 13-year-old, but not for rape because they had both consented to sex. His punishment was a six month docking of his allowance.
The trial has been adjourned until Monday. – Sapa