Former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial will resume in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday after a one-week adjournment.
Reports suggest he may apply for the case to be dismissed for lack of evidence, but his attorney Michael Hulley was not immediately available to confirm this.
Postponing the case last week, Judge Willem van der Merwe said that for the sake of transparency he did not want applications or further information to be presented to him during the adjournment, but for it to be done in the open when the trial resumes.
Zuma is alleged to have raped a 31-year-old HIV-positive family friend at his Forest Town, Johannesburg, home on November 2 last year.
His lawyer Kemp J Kemp has told the court that Zuma claims the two had consensual sexual intercourse and during the cross-examination of the woman, who calls Zuma ”umalume [uncle]”, focused on her testimony that she froze and did not fight him off or tell him to stop.
The prosecution countered with a trauma specialist who described this as a normal and documented reaction to a stressful incident, which was compounded with her having been raped at the ages of five, 13 and 14 while her parents were in exile.
Trial watchers have been abuzz with speculation on whether Zuma (63) will take the stand and whether his own sexual and mental history will be open to scrutiny in the same way that the complainant’s was.
The intensely personal evidence revealed to the court prompted South African Human Rights Commission chairperson Jody Kollapen to call for a review of rape laws that allow survivors to be interrogated about their sexual history.
HIV/Aids has been once of the central threads of the trial, with both the woman and Zuma’s lawyer saying no condom was used.
In addition, almost every witness cross-examined by Kemp was asked if he or she were aware of a political plot to overthrow Zuma.
This is in line with Zuma’s own belief about why he, a potential candidate for the presidency as the ruling party’s deputy president, is on trial for rape and facing a corruption trial later this year.
Protesters in support of Zuma, and others who support the woman, are expected to take up their separate positions along the cordoned-off Pritchard Street.
Writer and rape survivor Charlene Smith is expected to join the protest highlighting abuse of women.
Zuma has been arriving for the trial with sirens wailing and a protective cordon of at least eight besuited and armed bodyguards accompanying him into the court. The woman at the centre of the trial has not been present since she stepped out of the witness box. — Sapa