A police commissioner who questioned former deputy president Jacob Zuma after he allegedly raped a woman was accused of lying in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.
Zuma’s lawyer Kemp J Kemp said it was ”highly improbable” that Commissioner Norman Taioe, with more than 30 years experience, forgot to put in his statement that Zuma had shown him the guest bedroom at his house. This happened after Taioe asked to be shown the alleged crime scene.
Taioe testified on Tuesday: ”I said show me the alleged crime scene and he showed me the guest bedroom. I then understood it to be the crime scene.”
When he asked Zuma in the guest bedroom, ”is this where it happened?” Zuma replied yes.
The commissioner said that afterwards Zuma showed him the rest of the house including his bedroom.
At Zuma’s bedroom the commissioner asked: ”What happened here?”
Zuma said that he had consensual sex with the woman in his bedroom. The complainant says that she was raped in the guest bedroom.
Kemp asked the commissioner why he had not asked Zuma: ”Did you have intercourse in this room?” instead of asking what happened there. Zuma would most likely have realised what the commissioner had meant by his questioning.
Kemp said to Taioe during his cross-examination: ”I simply put it to you, it did not happen that way.”
Kemp said the commissioner had not initially asked Zuma to show him the crime scene but instead where the woman had slept that night. The commissioner denied this.
After Kemp accused the commissioner of trying to trap Zuma by asking him these questions, Taioe said his lawyer should have advised him on what to say.
Zuma’s attorney, Michael Hulley, was present during the proceedings in the house.
The commissioner said he went to Zuma’s house after making arrangements with him because he wanted to familiarise himself with the scene, take photos and also collect DNA samples from the accused.
Kemp also accused Taioe of not following the necessary police procedures because when suspects are questioned their replies are supposed to be written down in front of them and signed. This was not done.
He went further by saying Taioe did not give Zuma a warning statement when he went to his Forest Town house, as required by police procedure, because he believed the one he gave him at his Nkandla homestead was still valid.
As Kemp had done with previous witnesses, he asked Taioe if he was aware that there was a pro and anti-Zuma camp and in which camp he fitted.
Taioe laughed and said he was aware of the camps but was not involved in politics.
Persisting, Kemp managed to extract the following from Taioe: ”I am pro-Zuma if I may answer it. Are you satisfied?”
Kemp then asked him if he had laid a trap for Zuma to which Taioe replied: ”I didn’t”. – Sapa