Former deputy president Jacob Zuma is HIV-negative, he told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.
”Negative,” said Zuma when asked by state prosecutor Charin de Beer for his HIV status.
Zuma is accused of raping an HIV-positive family friend, and has told the court that the consensual sex he claims they had was without a condom.
After he was appointed deputy president of the country, he was also appointed chairperson of the Aids Council.
Zuma said he had sex with the woman because the risk of contracting HIV/Aids was minimal.
”I knew the risk was very minimal,” he said.
Zuma said he knew there was a risk but believed it was small, from knowledge he had gained while serving on the Aids Council.
He said he did not tell the woman his HIV-status, but he thought she knew he was HIV-negative.
”I don’t see any reason why she would think I’m HIV-positive.”
Prosecutor Charin de Beer asked Zuma why he had had discussions with people about herbs that could help fight the virus.
She put it to him that these people had approached him about these herbs because he was HIV-positive.
”No, that is not true,” he replied.
De Beer also put it to Zuma that his not using a condom was an indication of rape.
The woman had earlier testified she would never have had consensual sex without a condom.
Zuma denied this, saying the woman had taken the initiative for them to have sex and when he was hesitant to go ahead after they found neither of them had a condom, she encouraged him. Zuma admitted that the rape allegation had caused his reputation considerable damage and that was the reason he took a decision to step down from certain African National Congress structures.
Before his cross examination started, he told the court he had sex with the woman for about 15 minutes.
When asked by his advocate, Kemp J Kemp what the intensity of the intercourse was, Zuma said: ”it was normal sexual intercourse by two people who enjoy having sexual intercourse”.
Zuma’s HIV-status has been the subject of speculation since the trial began.
His most recent test was last month.
Zuma told not to refer to ‘sex’
On Monday, Zuma said he was told by a lawyer not to say in a statement to police he had sex with the woman who accuses him of rape. He testified that his lawyer Michael Hulley had told him instead to write in the statement ”after we shared each other’s company privately”.
Zuma gave the written statement to two police officers after they read him his rights at his Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal. In the statement, he denied raping the 31-year-old HIV-positive complainant.
Zuma denied pointing out the guest room as the alleged scene of the crime when police asked him to do so. ”That is not true,” he said.
Zuma also told the court that during a meeting with two women who the complainant referred to as aunts, they had asked him if he was willing to start lobola negotiations. He said they told him that it looked like a ”love relationship”.
They said, ”You’d better marry her”, and asked if it would not be better if lobola negotiations be initiated. ”The very lobola issue was discussed at length.”
They asked him what was on his mind. ”I said to them, ‘Well, if that is your wish, I have no problem with starting lobola negotiations.”’
Earlier on Monday, Zuma told the court he does not think he placed his rape accuser at risk of HIV/Aids or any other sexually transmitted disease by not using a condom. – Sapa