South African former deputy president Jacob Zuma apologised to the nation on Tuesday for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, a day after he was acquitted of rape.
”I should have been more cautious and more responsible,” said Zuma in an interview to SABC radio. ”I erred on this issue and on this, I apologise.
”The war against Aids, I’ll stand for it and our fight will continue and I will continue to preach, even using my example that we need to fight HIV/Aids because it is a dangerous thing.”
Zuma was cleared on the charge of raping the woman in a verdict rendered on Monday, but the judge admonished the former deputy president for having unprotected sex.
”It is inexcusable that the accused did so,” said Judge Willem van der Merwe, as he wrapped up his six-hour judgment in the trial, the most sensational of the post-apartheid era.
”It is totally unacceptable that a man should have unprotected sex with a person other than his regular partner and definitely not with a person who, to his knowledge, is HIV-positive,” he said.
The harsh words from the judge were in line with the criticism that Aids activists had directed at the former number two, who was one of the government’s leading officials on Aids policy.
Zuma headed the National Aids Council, which advocated the use of condoms in its campaign to fight the pandemic that affects one in seven adults in South Africa, one of the biggest caseloads in the world.
In admonishing Zuma, Van der Merwe referred to a famous Rudyard Kipling poem: ”Had Rudyard Kipling known of this case at the time he wrote his poem If, he might have added the following: ‘And if you can control your body and your sexual urges, then you are a man, my son’.”
The judge also said ”he would not even comment” on Zuma’s evidence that he had a shower after the intercourse to lessen his chances of contracting the virus.
Women’s rights activists criticised the acquittal, calling it a blow to efforts to reduce South Africa’s rates of rape, among the highest in the world.
Carrie Shelver of the NGO People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday that ”words have always been insufficient” when it comes to changing the behaviour of people towards issues surrounding HIV/Aids.
”When you have somebody in a leadership position saying condomise, abstain, be faithful and then not doing it, the actions speak louder than the words. I don’t think Jacob Zuma was alone in using those methods [unprotected sex], but what his words did do is that they served to reinforce misconceptions [about HIV/Aids] and he has the responsibility to undo that.
”I think there’s more that is required rather than an apology. His arguments about [the] short skirt and taking a shower after having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person require more than an apology to undo that,” said Shelver.
Also on Monday, six women from Powa were escorted from the court by police for their safety.
The rape trial has dominated news headlines and opened debate on many issues, including cultural norms, sexual stereotypes, rape myths, post-traumatic stress disorder, activities in African National Congress exile communities and behaviour at an Anglican pastors’ training college.
Zuma, who is deputy president of the ANC, has said the charge is part of a political conspiracy to remove him as a candidate for South Africa’s next president.
He is still awaiting trial on corruption charges emanating from the fraud and corruption conviction of his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, a bidder in the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal. — Sapa-AFP