The woman Jacob Zuma allegedly raped told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday she had been raped on a previous occasion. She said this while giving evidence on the contents of an SMS sent to her sister after the alleged incident involving Zuma.
Details of the previous rape were not revealed.
In the SMS, she wrote: ”I am very uncomfortable, Umalume is starting to look at me sexually. There must be something in my drawers (panties). The mothers must not know.”
On Monday, she told the court she felt the need to tell her sister something had happened, but could not yet bring herself to give the details.
Cross-examined by Zuma’s counsel Kemp J Kemp on Tuesday about what she had meant by the SMS, she replied it had indicated there must be something wrong with her vagina that he would want to do something like that to her.
Kemp put it to her that the SMS in fact meant that there was something about her that attracted this kind of attention.
She replied: ”I hope not. I see it as meaning something is wrong with me, or bad luck, but not that I’m doing something.”
She also said she did not believe a woman could do something that would allow her to be raped.
Seeking advice from Kasrils
Meanwhile, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils was phoned and asked for advice by the woman, the court also heard on Tuesday.
Kemp read from a statement made by Kasrils that the woman phoned him and told him she had been raped by Zuma and was going to lay a charge.
The woman told the court she had Kasrils’ telephone number because he was one of the people who had been trying to secure funding for her overseas studies. After talking to her sister, she had phoned ”Uncle Ronnie” because she though there might be issues of safety he could advise her on. Her sister also worked in the intelligence department.
The woman had also wanted to know about the witness protection programme.
”It was just advice about those issues that I wanted to get from him,” she said.
Kasrils had sympathised with her, but was not able to help and advised her to do what she thought was right, she told the court.
In cross examination, Kemp kept asking her why she was at Zuma’s house on November 2. She denied that she had asked to spend the night there and that she had been offered a lift home by Zuma’s daughter.
Asked why she had applied for three passports in 2002, the woman replied that she applied for a permanent and a temporary passport to go overseas for a job interview. Worried that she might not receive the passports in time, a colleague at the Department of Social Development, where she worked, helped her get a third passport, ”a government passport”.
Questioned by Kemp whether, on the night of the alleged incident, she had remarked that she always carried a pair of panties and a toothbrush with her, the woman answered that she did not remember.
However, she indeed always had these items, a face cloth and a kanga (a fabric wrap) with her, she told the court. The court heard on Monday that she was wearing a kanga when she was allegedly raped. — Sapa