Old friendships and family ties were laid bare in Jacob Zuma’s Johannesburg High Court rape trial on Tuesday.
Zuma chose to sit down for his second day of testimony and seemed relaxed as state prosecutor Charin de Beer examined his relationship with his rape accuser and her father.
He denied that he and her father, whom he knew from the 1950s, were family friends, instead describing their relationship as one of ”comradely affection”.
Speaking in isiZulu, the former deputy president told the court his attorney, Michael Hulley, may have described her and her family as close friends in a radio interview, but he did not say this himself.
Throughout her testimony, the woman who alleges he raped her on November 2 last year, called him ”malume” — the word for uncle — and said she regarded him as a close family friend.
Zuma testified that the term was a common form of address used by exile children.
”I regarded her as a comrade’s child.”
The ”hello, big girl”, he greeted her with when she arrived at his house on the night of the alleged rape was an address he had used for ”many others”.
He agreed there was a difference in their positions in society, but denied that there had been a large power imbalance between them, with her employed as a contract wellness coordinator, while he was the deputy president.
Acknowledging that he had told the woman stories about her father, who died in a car accident, Zuma told the court he had believed she wanted the information for a book she was writing.
He has testified that he had received signals from the woman which led him to believe she wanted something more when she visited him that night, in the wake of a family crisis. These included her arrival at his house in a skirt that showed her legs.
He told the court he had unprotected sex with her, even though she was HIV-positive, because he ”knew the risk was very minimal” from knowledge he gained while serving on the Aids Council.
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.”
De Beer asked Zuma why he had had discussions with people about herbs that could help fight the virus and put it to him that these people had approached him about the 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 also denied this, explaining that the woman had taken the initiative in the sexual encounter, encouraging him when he hesitated on discovering neither of them had a condom.
He conceded that the rape allegation had considerably damaged his reputation and that it was the reason he stepped 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.
Asked by his advocate, Kemp J Kemp what the intensity of the intercourse was, Zuma answered: ”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. – Sapa