When Jacob Zuma apologised to the mother of the woman who has accused him of rape, it was only for the effect that her laying the charge was having on her mother, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Wednesday.
”I was only apologising for the effect that impacted on her,” said Zuma.
State prosecutor Charin de Beer persisted in this line of cross-examination, repeatedly asking Zuma why he said ”sorry” to the widow of one of his close comrades.
At one point the public was clucking in exasperation and Judge Willem van der Merwe said, ”the question has been answered more than once, even the audience understands it”.
Undaunted, De Beer added one last question, asking whether the former deputy president thought that a ”blanket apology” was enough. He said that her mother said she felt better afterwards.
Zuma also denied that former journalist Ranjeni Munusamy was an aide of his.
De Beer said that she was described as an aide of his in various newspaper reports, leading Zuma to retort that the media got many things wrong about him.
Munusamy sat in the front row, taking notes while De Beer said that Munusamy was one of the people who featured in a flurry of cellphone calls after the alleged rape on November 2.
She had phoned lawyer Yusuf Dockrat while a meeting was being set up between him, the complainant and her mother.
Zuma said that Munusamy worked on the website of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust and gave him information about things on the website. He also had no knowledge of a radio interview his attorney Michael Hulley had until this information was presented to the court.
Earlier in proceedings Zuma had said he was not aware of mediation attempts on his behalf by KwaZulu-Natal finance provincial minister Zweli Mkhize and it was not done on his request.
The court also heard that in the days immediately following the alleged rape, he did not phone the complainant because he was waiting for her to make contact with him. On November 9, Zuma then tried several times to phone the complainant. She answered the ninth time he phoned.
De Beer told Zuma it appeared from the amount of calls that he was quite desperate to get hold of the woman.
He agreed, explaining that he wanted to speak to the woman in front of her mother to give his side of the story. He did not want to persuade her to drop the charge, but remind her of the truth of what had happened.
De Beer put it to Zuma that the reason he wanted to contact the woman on that day was because he had heard that the police were in KwaZulu-Natal wanting a meeting with him.
He denied this, telling the court the meeting he would have held with the woman, would have been after the one with the police.
The trial continues on Thursday. — Sapa