Jacob Zuma’s rape trial is expected to end on Tuesday with the defence resting its case at the Johannesburg High Court.
All that will remain is for Judge Willem van der Merwe to decide whether the former deputy president raped a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman who regarded herself as a family friend at his Johannesburg home on November 2 last year.
Zuma said they had consensual sex, but the woman says he raped her and that because she ”froze” she did not resist.
Last week, the court heard the state sum up its case, saying that Zuma left out any mention of sex in the statement he handed to police, to leave his options open in case the woman withdrew the charge.
Prosecutor Charin de Beer also questioned whether Zuma is HIV-negative as he has claimed, since no document proving this was handed in to the court records. The woman at the centre of the case has said she would not have unprotected sex because of her own status.
The defence focused on the woman’s past sexual encounters, saying she had a history of making false rape allegations and that she had had unprotected sex before.
Van der Merwe has committed himself to a judgement ”as soon as possible”.
The case has generated lively debate on topics ranging from cultural norms and the effectiveness of the country’s HIV/Aids programme to the possibility of a political conspiracy against Zuma, who faces a corruption trial later this year.
Each day outside the court, he was supported by a group of people singing old struggle songs adapted for the trial, while diagonally opposite them, another group highlighted issues around rape and what it said was the need for new rape laws. — Sapa