Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - April 2, 2006
Charles Molele and Moipane Malefane

Zuma will have to tell Judge Willem van der Merwe at the Johannesburg High Court of the events in his Johannesburg home in November last year that have led him to the dock, where he stands accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman - without a condom.

Six potential witnesses, it is believed, have also been scheduled to testify in his defence. Two of them are expected to air dirty linen on the complainant - they are the men she once accused of raping her when she was a teenager.

On Friday, Zuma's lawyers played their cards close to their chests by refusing to disclose who their witnesses would be.

But the Sunday Times has established that the sensational trial might be delayed even further because the defence team is unable to find some of its witnesses.

Apart from Zuma, the only witnesses currently available are his daughter, a magazine agony aunt and a woman who sat at an ANC tribunal where the complainant accused two men of raping her.

On Wednesday defence lawyer Jerome Brauns admitted to the Sunday Times that the team had not located some of the witnesses to whom it referred at the beginning of the trial.

These witnesses include "Mashaya" - who Zuma's counsel, Kemp J Kemp, had referred to during earlier testimony as a man the complainant alleged had raped her when she was 13.

Kemp said that Mashaya would testify that he and the woman were sexually involved as adults for a number of years.

Zuma's 20-year-old daughter, Duduzile, who was staying at her father's Forest Town home at the time of the alleged rape, is expected to testify about the events that preceded the incident.

According to Kemp, her evidence will include claims that the "inappropriately dressed" complainant asked to be taken to Zuma's study in the hours before the alleged rape.

Another defence witness expected to take the stand is a man known as "Charles".

The complainant testified that he had raped her when she was 13 years old.

Zuma's defence is also expected to call Dr Louise Olivier, You magazine's agony aunt, who will challenge evidence about the woman's behaviour during and after the alleged rape.

Perhaps the most sensational evidence in the trial will be that of Zuma himself.

The former deputy president is set to testify that he had consensual sex with the woman, followed by a baby oil massage.

Zuma will also have to tell the judge why he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman if it was consensual.

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