'Zuma said he was sorry'
Katrien Smith and Lucia Swart , Beeld
Johannesburg - "He said he was sorry, he wanted to apologise."
These were the alleged words of Jacob Zuma to the mother of the woman who has accused him of raping her, when the mother went to see Zuma at his house in Forest Town, Johannesburg.
The mother of Khwezi, as the complainant has been named by women's supporter groups, testified on Friday in the Johannesburg Supreme Court after the cross-questioning of Khwezi was completed. She said Zuma had said to her he was sorry.
The mother testified how she went to the house on Sunday, 13 November last year, to see Zuma about the incident and what had happened to her daughter.
Her daughter had told her the previous day after she (the mother) had returned from Swaziland about the alleged rape by Zuma.
Dr Zweli Mkhize, MEC for finance in KwaZulu-Natal, paid her air fare for this visit.
'How could he do this?'
"I asked him why he should to anything like that but he could not give me a straightforward reply and said he was ashamed and would like to apologise for the incident," she said
She said she was "shattered" by the news of the rape.
"How he could he have done anything like this after having worked so hard? All of us were looking up to him."
"He furthermore knew that the child was HIV positive - at a time I thought I was going to lose my daughter.
"I asked myself: 'How am I going to fight this war?'
"I then saw it as war and I thought: 'How will I fight against the whole world?'"
According to her Zuma also offered that evening to help to send Khwezi to a university in England and to have a fence erected around her mother's house - something I had wanted for a long time.
"I did not want money - that would have been an insult to me.
"To me the money for a fence was not equal to the mistreatment of myself and my child."
Withdraw the case
She further testified how two of the elder women, who had been in the group with her and Zuma when they were in exile, came to see her while she was in Swaziland.
"They said they came to make me aware of the dangers of proceeding with the case (the rape charge) against Zuma.
"Then one said I should imagine if Zuma lost the case and was found guilty, how he would then lose everything.
"They pleaded that we should withdraw the charge."
Earlier on Friday Zuma, through his legal counsel, adv Kemp J Kemp, gave his version of what had happened on the night of the alleged rape.
One of the fundamental differences between his version and that of Khwezi's is that Zuma alleges that their sex with consent took place in his bedroom on the first floor of the house.
Khwezi said she had been raped in the guest room on the ground floor of the house.
According to Zuma, Khwezi had come to his room where they chatted and this later turned into a massage session with baby oil and after they realised that neither of them had a condom, they had sex for about 15 minutes.
Zuma acknowledges that he had asked her whether he may ejaculate inside her, but he did not receive a clear answer from Khwezi.
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