Zuma+Rape+Trial+Day+5,+Friends+of+JZ

Zuma Rape Trial Day 5
=Rape complainant treated for mental condition=

Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser was treated at a mental institution in Zimbabwe, has taken medication for people with mental illness and has received psychiatric therapy for several years up to now, her mother told the Johannesburg High Court on Friday. The 64-year-old woman told Judge Willem van der Merwe during cross examination by one of Zuma’s lawyers Jerome Brauns that her daughter had “nightmares and hallucinations” in her youth and took pills that “make you a zombie”. Earlier in the day, the 31-year-old complainant admitted during the last round of her cross examination that she was aware that the allegations she made against the ANC Deputy President would have been welcomed by the “anti-Zuma” camp. When asked by Zuma’s lead senior counsel Kemp J Kemp on the fourth day of cross examination whether she realized that her action of charging the ANC Deputy President would be “very popular” and “sweet music to the ears” of the anti-Zuma camp, she said she realized it would be “joined in with the conspiracy”. She denied that she would use the incident to market a book she was writing about her life. She also told the court that the man she suspects on infecting her with HIV says he is not HIV positive. The fifth day of the rape trial began with Kemp asking the complainant to confirm that she only had penetrative sex with two men in her life – this was people previously referred to in the case as C and Z. She said this was true and when asked whether she did not have penetrative sex with a man called Mashaya, she said she did not remember “what kind of sex it was”. Kemp said Mashaya would testify that he did have penetrative sex on several occasions with the complainant. He asked if she had any communication with C, the man she had intercourse with during an International Aids Conference in Thailand in July 2004. The woman said she spoke to him a few times on the telephone and saw him once thereafter at the South African Aids Conference. Kemp asked how many times the woman had protected sex with the man called Z, as she had previously testified that she had had unprotected sex with him a few times. She said “didn’t take a log of that”. She said the relationship lasted two years between 1994 and 1996, but did not want to commit to how many times they had protected sex during that period. State prosecutor Charin de Beer objected to Kemp next question about the identity of the two males the complainant says she had non-penetrative sex with. Kemp told the judge that the reason he asked was because a man called Modise would testify that he had “heavy petting sessions” with the complainant who then accused him of rape. He therefore wanted to know if Modise was one of the men she had non-penetrative sex with. The complainant said Modise was not among the men she had non-penetrative sex with. Kemp then told the complainant that he wanted to ask her a question of a personal nature and did not want to do so in open court. He said he had written the question down on a piece of paper and that she could also write the answer on the paper. Depending on her answer he would submit the paper as evidence. The woman wrote down the answer and the paper was handed to the judge as evidence. Kemp then said that the doctor who examined the woman at Baragwanath Hospital had found a cut on her vagina. He asked her if there could be any other explanation for the cut other than penetration by a man. She said she did not have any other explanation. Kemp went back to the incident when the woman became pregnant through what she believed was rape while she was unconscious. He asked whether the people at the boarding master’s house knew that she had “attacks” – which were similar to an epileptic fit – and whether they would know how long these attacks would last. She said they knew of the attacks but could not have known how long they would last. Kemp said it would be a “terrible risk” for them to take to attempt to rape her when she could come to at any time. She had no comment to make about this. He referred to a recent incident where she got an attack after reading a report in the Mail and Guardian newspaper that had claimed Zuma had said he had a consensual sexual relationship with her. He asked how long before that incident did she have an attack. She said she could remember one between October and November 2004. “Now honestly Ms X (woman cannot be identified), between 1996 and the incident on November 2 last year involving Mr Zuma, are you saying you only had penetrative sex once?” “I don’t take a log of how many times I have sex,” she said. Kemp asked whether because of her experiences, she woman froze “at the sight of a man wanting to have sex with you”. “Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but the statement is simplifying things a bit too much,” she said. Kemp asked the woman to drape the kanga, the garment she was wearing on the night of the alleged rape around her again. De Beer described the cloth as being 1.4metres wide and 1.54metres in length and had the thickness of a bed sheet. After she demonstrated to the court how it was draped around her when she went into Zuma study, she asked to ask a question. “Will I ever get my kanga back?” she said much to the amusement of everyone in court. Kemp then asked why it was that she had told the court she had said no to Zuma three times that evening – first to say she was not sleeping, then no when he started to massage her and the third time when she said “No Malume”, when he official statement only mentions the first two nos. “My consultation was in much more detail than the statement,” she replied. Kemp asked after discovering that she was HIV positive whether she confronted the man, Z, and whether he was also positive. “We will never know for sure but he says he is not,” she said. Kemp then asked about whether she had been in Dubai other than the time she was stuck at the airport in July 2004. She said she hadn’t. He asked how many passports she had at the moment and she replied that she had one in her pocket. Kemp asked to have a look at it in order to establish if she had visited Dubai only once. She handed the document over. He said she had earlier testified that in 2002, she had three passports – one state passport, one temporary and one ordinary. He asked whether she had used the other or handed them back. She said she hadn’t used them and couldn’t remember what she did with the. Kemp asked whether she had aspirations of being an author. She said she had started writing about her life experiences but denied she was planning to publish a book. “If you remember from the book you stole and now have, I dedicated it to my grandson. So I don’t aspire to be an author,” she said. Kemp reminded her that she said in the dedication at the front of the manuscript that she did want her story to come out. He asked whether a “chapter or two” about Zuma in the book would make it quite popular. “Just for your information, I decided that the book would end on my birthday in 1995,” she replied. “But the bit you wrote covers events and feelings after 1995,” he said. The woman then said she would refuse to answer any more questions pertaining to the book. Kemp said a recent newspaper article called Zuma a hypocrite, citing a previous quote of his where he talked publicly about the benefits of having protected sex. “The same statement could be said against you as an HIV activist for having unprotected sex,” said Kemp. “On this occasion (on November 2), I did not have unprotected sex, I was raped. For other occasions if people want to call me that, they are welcome,” she said. Kemp then relayed for the first time in the court, Zuma’s version of the events on the night of the incident. He said Zuma said during a conversation between the two of them she again made mention of the fact that she did not have a boyfriend “which in the recent past had become very much a trend in your conversations”. She said this was not true. Kemp that Zuma told her he would “comfort” her and she agreed with this. Kemp asked whether before the incident, she had sent Zuma numerous SMSs “which would end saying ‘I miss your love’ etc”. She said this was correct. But she denied that on the night in question, she and Zuma had a conversation where there was some hint of a possible relationship. According to Kemp, Zuma did not show her to the guest bedroom because she seemed to know where to sleep. While the two were sitting in the lounge after dinner talking, Zuma felt the conversation started to drift so he told he had some work to do. She indicated she still wanted to talk. The woman denies this. Zuma then told her he would see her after he had completed his work. She confirms he did say so. Zuma said she came into the study dressed in the kanga with his daughter Duduzile, but his version was that after Duduzile left to go to sleep, the woman still “lingered” behind saying she wanted to talk. Zuma says the woman asked if they could talk once he finished his work and she fell asleep in the meantime, he should wake her. He went to the room some time later and the door was slightly ajar. The two smaller lights were on in the room and he found her lying across the bed. Her thumb was in her mouth and she was fast asleep. The woman denies all this, maintaining her version of events. Zuma says he woke her up and told her he was ready to talk in his room. He asked whether she knew where his room was and she told him she did because she had closed the windows there previously. He left to go to his room on the top floor of the double-storey house and she followed him there. Zuma says when she got to his room, she said she was feeling cold and got under the duvet. While they were talking, she mentioned that a massage would be nice and he rubbed her with baby oil. The kanga was loosened by her in the process and he got into the bed with her. Zuma says they did not use a condom because neither of them had one at the time. He uttered words of endearment while they were having sex and at the end asked whether he should ejaculate inside her. She did not give an answer. He went to the en-suite bathroom afterwards and took a shower. Zuma says he in no way tried to restrain the woman or pinned her hands during the intercourse. He also said that at no stage did she say no and everything that took place happened with her consent. According to Kemp, at some stage Zuma asked her if she was fine and she nodded yes. The complainant denies all this. When he returned from the bathroom, he found that the woman had left his room so he dressed in his pyjamas and went back to her room. She was dressed in short pyjamas while she had earlier told the court it had been long ones. He asked how she was and she replied that she was okay. He told her that he would not see her the next morning as she would be leaving early and asked whether she had money to take a taxi cab. She told him she would be taking the bus and did have money. Zuma says they then kissed before he left the room and went back upstairs to his bedroom. The woman again denied his version. Kemp said Zuma learnt of the charge against him late on the Friday she laid the complaint at the police station. “He was astounded and immediately suspected some political intrigue about it,” said Kemp. Zuma contacted people close to the complainant’s family to establish what was going on, and to set up a meeting with her and her mother to discuss the matter. He said he was told by her aunt that she was upset because he hadn’t phoned her after the incident. Zuma was advised to speak to the complainant only if she was comfortable talking to him and tried to get through to her several times. He eventually spoke to her the following Wednesday and again on Thursday morning to make arrangements to meet with her that Sunday. Kemp asked for a short adjournment to consult Zuma about some facts, and when the case resumed he asked the woman whether she had a “very long” conversation with Zuma on the night in question. “I don’t disagree. I like talking,” she said. He told her that Zuma says he could not have said he negotiated lobola on her behalf because people in her family would have to do it. She said she didn’t have any comment about this. Zuma also disputes that he said he would come and “tuck” her in. She maintains he said this. Kemp asked whether she had asked Zuma for money to study in the UK and for the fence at her mother’s house. She says she talked to him about the fence but didn’t say she wanted his assistance. Kemp asked her whether she had explained her version of events in detail to the lawyer, Yusuf. She says she didn’t think she gave him all the details. He asked whether she cried when she told him her story and the woman said she couldn’t remember. Kemp then ended his cross examination and the prosecutor, Charin de Beer re-examined the complainant. She asked why she had left the light on in the bedroom. The woman answered that it was because she was afraid to sleep in the dark. She asked about the lighting in the study where Zuma had been doing his work and the woman said it had been fairly brightly lit. De Beer asked what she thought of Duduzile’s opinion that her dress code (the kanga with no underwear) was “inappropriate”. “I don’t think there was anything inappropriate about how I was dressed. This was how I dress at home and this was a place I considered to be home,” she said. De Beer asked what she had meant when she felt a “discomfort” during the intercourse. She said because of the dryness of her vagina, she felt the friction of the penis against her vagina wall. De Beer said there were suggestions that there was a political motive behind the case. “Did anyone influence you to pursue the case?” “Nobody or no force influenced me to press charges,” she said. She asked when the complainant who was with her at the time she met the lawyer called Yusuf. She said it was one of the friends she calls her “sister” and her mother. The provincial head of detective services Commissioner Taioe joined them as they were wrapping up. De Beer closed her re-examination and the judge told the complainant that she was excused. The complainant’s mother, who also cannot be named in order to protect the identity of her daughter, was called to the stand next. De Beer asked about her how she knew Zuma. Speaking in isiZulu, which was translated into English, she explained that he and her husband served a prison sentence on Robben Island together and were comrades in the struggle. She asked about the relationship between her daughter and Zuma. “Whenever X (woman cannot be identified) sees Comrade Zuma, she sees her father.” She said her daughter told her of the incident at Zuma’s house when she returned from Swaziland the weekend after it happened. “First I cried. If felt very bad. I was devastated. I was very down and had fear,” she said. When asked why she replied: “I didn’t expect this from my comrade. How could he do such a thing? He has done so much work and we look up to him - we and other comrades. Plus he knows this child is HIV positive. At the time her CD 4 count had gone down…I thought that because of that, I would lose my daughter.” “I thought ‘how am I going to face up to this war’? I then saw it as war and I thought: ‘How will I fight against the whole world?’” She said she then though she would confront Zuma because she knew him. She called him and told him she would like to see him. He said he would also like to meet with her. She invited him to her house in KwaMashu, Durban to discuss the matter. He said he was unable to her house but asked her to come and meet with him in town. She asked him to bring his wife Ma Khumalo, whom she also knew, to the meeting but he said he was unable to. The complainant’s mother said she eventually met Zuma at his house in Johannesburg on the Sunday night. She says she asked him why he had done such a thing. “The answer he gave was not clear. He said he also did not know why…He primarily said he was sorry.” When asked by De Beer what he apologized for the woman answered “He did not say”. She says she told Zuma that she knew he did not drink alcohol because if he did, that could have explained what happened. “I said this child’s CD4 count is going down and she had to go back to school.” She says she told Zuma that her daughter had been through good and bad experiences. She said Zuma told her that her daughter had told her about this and that he had said she would help her. She says she told him that she was not a person who was “greedy” and he said he would arrange for the complainant to go to England. “I then said I don’t know if the child will still go there because she has given up. She has no hope of going back to school.” De Beer asked if any offers had been made. She replied that the issue of the university studies and the fence at her house were discussed. “What was you reaction,” asked De Beer. “I agreed that the money should not into my bank account, it should go directly to the school. I said I don’t want any insult… to me this fence money was not sufficient for the torture on me or my child”, she said. De Beer asked how Zuma appeared to the woman during the conversation. “When I found him, he was very sad, disappointed, very sombre,” she said. “When we were about to part at the main door, he said to me ‘Be strong’. I felt a bit of relief that he apologized. As I looked at him, as he appeared at the time up till now, I thought he was really sorry,” she said. She said the visit to Zuma was arranged by KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC, Dr Zweli Mkhize. She said Mkhize also arranged for her to see the lawyer, Yusuf Dockrat. She says she and her daughter, and her daughter’s friend met Dockrat at a shopping centre in Johannesburg. “He wanted the whole statement from A to Z,” she said. She said the lawyer asked her daughter to sign a document saying she agreed that he would be her attorney. She says the lawyer told her daughter that even if she made a statement withdrawing the charge, the state would not withdraw and could still proceed. De Beer asked if Mkhize had any further role. “He came to me to see how I was coping and offered to help in any way.” “Did he help you in other way,” De Beer asked. “He got me the ticket and I traveled to Johannesburg and paid for the accommodation when I came to see my daughter,” she said. De Beer asked whether she had been visited by anyone while she was in Swaziland. She said two women came to advise her about the dangers of proceeding with the case. She said the one woman said bluntly that if she was in her position she would “grab the culprit and strangle him”. She said the other woman said “Just imagine if Comrade Zuma loses this case and is convicted. He will lose everything. X should just forget about all this”. The woman was then cross examined by Brauns who asked about her relationship with Zuma. She said he was a “good acquaintance”. She says he treated her with a “great deal of respect”. She said he never visited her and the last she saw him was when she visited his traditional home at Nkandla after May last year. Brauns asked what her reaction would be if her daughter had a relationship with a person in Zuma’s position. She said she would be surprised as he was an elderly person and is married. “I wouldn’t like it but if he said he loved her, I wouldn’t force her not to love him if she said she loved him”. “But you would disapprove?” asked Brauns. “Yes.” “Would you be disappointed?” “Yes.” She said she would be angry with her daughter about why she would chose to have a relationship with an elderly person. Brauns asked whether she and her daughter had a close relationship. She said they did. “Did she tell you about her sexual escapades?” “It is possible that she told me some of the things and not others”, the mother answered. Brauns asked why the complainant had said in the SMS she had sent her “sisters” after the incident that the mothers should not know what happened. “I’m 64 years old; I have high blood pressure; I have been in exile and back and faced problems, both social and political. My daughter understands. That is why she has to find a way to approach me. Even when she found out she had HIV, she had to find someone who was a doctor to tell me,” the woman said. Brauns asked whether the complainant would not have wanted to hide these facts from her mother. The mother said that perhaps her daughter wanted to tell her when the time was right at some later stage. “Did you bring up the issue of school with Mr Zuma?” Brauns asked. “Yes I think so,” she said. “Prior to you mentioning it, was it mentioned by Mr Mkhize?” “Yes, we did talk about it.” “You said what reparation there should be in this case?” “I did not say I want hlawula. I said I want my child to go to school. It is her right. It doesn’t have to be a fine,” the woman said. Brauns asked her to describe the concept of hlawula. “If you have a misfortune, you give thanks, like when you come out of prison. If you have impregnated a girl or have sex with somebody’s wife, you pay compensation.” She said it also applied if someone had “deflowered” a girl and this was the concept discussed with Mkhize. She says she also discussed an “apology” with Mkhize. “I said I wanted him (Zuma) to apologise to me. Brauns then asked about the time when her daughter wanted to become a priest and a pastor called Mbambo assisted to get her closer to the church. “Would you say you relationship with him was close?” “I don’t know what you are aiming at but yes,” she said. He asked whether she remembered a conference at Chesterville in 1994 at Pastor Mayekiso’s parish. “Yes. By the way, what happened there?” the woman asked. The judge advised her to answer the questions as they were posed. Brauns asked whether she remembered that her daughter had claimed an attempted rape at the conference at Chesterville. She said she did and Brauns asked her to relate what happened. “He didn’t touch her, he came in surreptitiously to her bed,” the woman said. Brauns said that Mbambo says that on the Sunday morning after the incident, he had breakfast with Mayekiso, the complainant’s mother and a man from Springs. The woman said she could not remember this. Brauns asked whether she remembered confronting the priest about the attempted rape, when she and her daughter went to him, carrying a t-shirt in a plastic bag. “It is possible that I approached him and said these things. I don’t remember reporting it to anyone,” the woman said. Brauns said the priest says he explained to the mother that what he had seen in the room was not consistent with rape. The priest says the woman took the t-shirt out of the plastic bag with semen stains on it, and a disagreement ensued. The woman said she could not remember this. “He says you accused him of taking Nester’s (the boy implicated) side,” said Brauns. The woman said she did not remember this. Brauns asked whether her husband had been slow to discuss issues which were problematic. “Yes, you could say so,” she answered. Brauns said Mbambo says he reminded the woman at the time that her daughter had introduced Nester to her at breakfast that morning at that it was unlikely that her daughter would introduce her rapist to her mother. The woman’s response, according to Mbambo, was that her daughter was like her husband – slow to respond. “It could have been that my husband was slow not like we women who are fast,” she said. She said she could not remember if she reported the incident to the police or what the final outcome of the matter was. Brauns asked if she remembered while she was in exile in Zambia a man called Godfrey who lived in her house. She says he did. He asked whether she was aware that her daughter had a relationship with Godfrey and Mashaya. She said she could remember Godfrey’s trial of rape - not about an affair – and that he was fined. Brauns asked whether she remembered the members of the committee who presided over the case. She replied that she did. He asked whether she recalled that her daughter had recanted the allegations of rape and instead told the committee that she had consensual sex with the men. “As far as I know, there was no consent,’ the woman answered. Brauns asked whether she remembered there was a suggestion from Godfrey that the mother had allowed her daughter to sleep with him in his bed. The woman become agitated and upset by this question and told Brauns several times that she felt insulted by the suggestion. He pointed out that it had been Godfrey and not him who said so. He asked whether she approved of her daughter’s relationship with Mashaya. She said she was brought up in a way that parents did not instruct who their children should go to bed with. Brauns asked whether she recalled while living in Lusaka Zambia, a mental institution Chainama. She said she did. He asked whether her daughter had been treated at the hospital. She says she did not recall this but says her daughter was treated at a mental institution later while they were living in Zimbabwe. She says her daughter had therapy sessions with psychologists and psychiatrists but that this “did not mean she is not mentally sound”. “Did you prompt the visits,” asked Brauns. “Yes, with the help of the ANC doctors,” she said. She said after her father’s death, her daughter had hallucinations and nightmares, and pains on her belly button. She also wet the bed, something she had outgrown when she was 18 months old. She took her daughter to the hospital and was told there was nothing wrong with her stomach. “She was given tablets taken by mad people. This aggravated her condition. The nightmares and hallucinations got worse. She was better only after seeing psychologists in Zimbabwe,” she said. Brauns asked for how many years the complainant received psychiatric therapy. “I cannot remember. It continued into adulthood until the present day.” She said she did not know if her daughter still had hallucinations but would exclude the possibility that she still had nightmares. Asked whether her daughter still sees psychologists for the same problems she had then, the woman said since it was a court of law and she was not a medical person, she did not want to commit herself. “According to me she had experienced many difficulties, raped at the age of five, (and) at the age of 13, having your father die in a tragic accident. Seeing your comrades die, your uncles die, you don't have a matric because you don't qualify.” She said her daughter could not study in the United Kingdom where her qualifications were only seen as O level. She had failed matric because she had difficulty with Afrikaans. She finally qualified for further study. Then, when she started to settle, she found out that she was HIV-positive, her mother continued. She took tablets that “make you a zombie”, so she failed her assignments and the university excluded her. “Actually I also think I need a psychologist now and then, but I have been resisting. We were all supposed to undergo psychological counseling when we came back from exile,” the mother said. Brauns then went on to question the woman about her relationship with Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils. She said she was close to him in exile. Asked when last she spoke to him, she said she could not remember. Asked whether it was a few years ago, she said it was a long time since she had seen him personally but that it was possible that she spoke to him telephonically. “Did you speak to him about the rape in the last few months,” Brauns asked. “I honestly can’t remember,” she said. Brauns asked when the woman had entered the witness protection programme. She said it had been the second week of November. He then produced her cellular phone records which showed that a call was made to Kasrils’ cellphone on November 12 at 20:51pm. “Do you recall making such a call?” “I do not remember” “Is it possible that you could have called him?” “It is possible. He is someone I know.” She maintained she could not remember making the call. Brauns asked when last since then did she speak to Kasrils. She said she may have sent him SMSs during Christmas and New Year. But she could not recall whether she spoke to Kasrils. The state had no question for re-examination and the witness was excused. The trial continues on Monday when the state will call its next witness.
 * Friends of Jacob Zuma, Johannesburg, 10/3/2006 12:00:00 AM**

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 * From: http://www.friendsofjz.co.za/showarticle.asp?id=81