Intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and KwaZulu-Natal finance MEC Zweli Mkhize, both members of the African National Congress’s powerful national executive committee, are among key state witnesses lined up to testify at the rape trial of the party’s deputy president Jacob Zuma next week.
This was confirmed by National Prosecuting Authority sources this week. However, NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi has refused to comment on the nature of Kasrils’s and Mkhize’s testimonies. But the Mail & Guardian understands it is in relation to the role the two politicians played in the hours and days immediately after the alleged rape. Kasrils is expected to reveal in court what the complainant conveyed to him on the night she was allegedly violated. He will explain her state of mind at the time of their telephonic conversation. Sources in the intelligence industry claim that the woman confided in Kasrils because of his long-standing relationship with her family that dates back to their years in exile. As a well-known public figure, the state will count on the intelligence minister’s testimony to boost its case against Zuma.
Mkhize, on the other hand, will face a potentially more vigorous interrogation over his motive for paying a visit to the complainant’s mother in the week that the rape charges were laid. According to media reports Mkhize, a strong Zuma ally, met the complainant’s mother to ask her to persuade her daughter to drop the charges. If this is the case, the state would want to use this as proof that Zuma tried to interfere with the police investigation.
Mkhize this week refused to comment on the matter. Last December he issued a statement denying the claims, outlining his ”long-standing” relationship with the family.
”It must be understood that any meeting that took place between myself and the family was only to offer family support in my role as a close family friend and has not been in any way related to ‘brokering a settlement’ (sic) as some media have reported,” read the statement in part.
The state will also rely on DNA tests of semen found on the complainant’s underwear and will present a medical examiner’s report that will show that sexual intercourse occurred.
Zuma has consistently denied the charges and his lawyer, Michael Hulley, this week said his client was more than ready to defend himself in court. He refused to be drawn on the defence’s strategy, but it is believed they will argue that there was consensual sex and that a prior sexual relationship existed.
The defence is also expected to focus on Kasrils’s role in assisting the complainant to lay charges two days after he first became aware of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust in Gauteng said it would mobilise more than 5 000 people to picket outside the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. Zuma’s traditional backers — the ANC Youth League, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party — have however, indicated that they will not participate in the pickets at the rape trial.