A church pastor told the Johannesburg High Court on Monday how he was expelled from college after a false rape accusation by Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser.
Pastor Sithembile Masoka told the court that he and the woman, who alleges Zuma raped her on November 2 last year, studied together in Vereeniging in 1995.
One day, he and a friend went to her room and he ”proposed love” to her. He explained to the court that he had wanted to have an affair with her. She laughed at him and rejected his proposal. The next day he was called in by the principal of the Wilberforce Theological College and expelled for rape.
He was not given a chance to explain himself, was upset because ”the charge did not fit”, and lost a year of his studies.
He enrolled at another college to complete his studies and was now based in Upington.
In her earlier testimony, the woman denied making any rape allegations while studying to be a priest.
Told under cross-examination that the woman did not even remember him, Masoka replied: ”That is not true”. He did not know why she would make up a false charge.
The woman has testified that she had a lapse in consciousness while at the college and fell pregnant, presumably by her house-master.
She told the court she eventually left the college because of what she felt were inappropriate advances by a priest there.
The defence has called to the stand Duduzile Ngcobo, who worked at the Diakonia Ecumenical Centre, in Durban, and knew the woman when she was part of the Inter-Church Youth non-denominational group working at the centre.
Agony aunt may testify
Zuma told the court last week that he and his accuser has consensual sex on November 2 after he received a number of signals from her.
He maintained she initiated the sex by entering his bedroom and sitting on his bed to discuss an important matter.
He also drew heavily on Zulu culture to explain, among other things, why they went ahead without a condom.
However, the woman has claimed he raped her in the guest room of his Johannesburg home and that she would never have had sex without a condom as she is HIV-positive.
Trauma specialist Merle Friedman has testified that it was quite probable the woman froze while allegedly being raped and was unable to summon help or fight off Zuma.
Business Day has reported that the defence is expected to produce psychologist Louise Olivier, You magazine’s agony aunt, to dispute this theory.
Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley is also expected to testify to give clarity on Zuma’s statement to police.
Zuma is alleged to have pointed out the guest room when asked for the ”scene of the crime” by police.
His defence team wants this evidence ruled inadmissible, because it was not in the police reports and came to be known only when Gauteng’s police commissioner Norman Taioe took the stand earlier in the trial.
Taioe contended that the information was written in his investigation notes.
Zuma also made no mention of sex in the initial police statement he and Hulley gave police.
The state has claimed that this was a strategic move. – Sapa