Cleared Zuma apologises to country
Former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, speaking to reporters a day after being acquitted of rape, apologised today for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, but denied he had harmed South Africa’s Aids prevention program.
Zuma was acquitted Monday of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive Aids activist and family friend at his Johannesburg home last November. His testimony during the trial about having unprotected consensual sex with the woman brought him a scolding from the judge, raised questions about his judgment and angered Aids activists who said he set a terrible example and demonstrated a shocking ignorance about how the virus that causes Aids is transmitted.
Before the rape trial and an unrelated corruption case that goes to trial in July, Zuma was seen as the man destined to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president. With Tuesday’s news conference, he began what promised to be a vigorous attempt to revive his political career.
“I wish to state categorically and place on record that I erred in having unprotected sex. I should have known better. And I should have acted with greater caution and responsibility. For this I unconditionally apologise to all the people of this country,” Zuma said during the news conference, broadcast live on radio and television.
Zuma also said he had never refused a task asked of him by the African National Congress and would not do so now if the party nominated him to run for president when Mbeki steps down in 2009. The constitution bars Mbeki from seeking a third term.
He also said he had informed ANC Secretary-General Kagalema Motlanthe that he intended to resume his duties as the deputy president of the governing party.
Zuma was fired as deputy president of South Africa by Mbeki after he was charged with corruption and fraud. He kept his party job but voluntarily suspended his activity as deputy president of the ANC after he was charged with rape last December. He will stand trial in July on the corruption charges connected to a large South African arms deal.
Zuma has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence of all charges and maintained the accusations were the result of a conspiracy by unidentified powers in the ANC who wanted to derail his political career.
Zuma refused to say who he believed was behind the conspiracy but did say that he “did not see the hand” of Mbeki in it.
He said the evidence of an effort to discredit him was clear in the press coverage of his trial for rape and pending corruption trial.
“It is ... unfortunate that the freedom of expression has been used as an instrument to assassinate character and prejudge judicial processes. I have endured volumes of media venom before and during the trial. At times I wondered if these were the freedoms we fought for and sacrificed our life for,” Zuma said.
He also said the woman the judge ruled had falsely accused him of rape should not be vilified. She cannot be identified under South African law, but many South Africans know who she is.
The judge had said trauma in her past may have led her to find “any sexual behaviour threatening.” She had been heckled as she arrived for court hearings, Zuma supporters burned her photograph outside the courtroom and aggressive cross-examination about her sexual history has prompted concern the trial will deter other women from reporting rape.
The woman has been in a witness protection program since her allegations were made public. Her mother’s house has been ransacked twice. South African media reported she is likely to be given a new home abroad now.
While saying he believed the judge was right to scold him for having unprotected sex with a woman he knew was HIV-positive, the former deputy president claimed his testimony was never intended as a policy statement on women or on AIDS. Zuma, who once headed the South African National Aids Commission, testified he had taken a shower after sex because he believed it reduced the risk of infection. Aids experts belittled that.
“I would like to underline the crucial struggle against HIV and Aids continues in our country,” Zuma said Tuesday. ”Our country has one of the most comprehensive programs of HIV and Aids prevention, treatment, support and research. And I am proud to have been associated with it in my tenure in government.”
He repeated his assertion that he is HIV-negative.
Zuma’s testimony was especially troubling in a country with 6 million HIV-infected people – the highest of any country in the world. Activists thought his testimony could further damage efforts to control the spread of HIV in a country where the president previously questioned the link between HIV and Aids and where the health minister has resisted anti-retroviral treatment while advocating garlic and the African potato as weapons against the disease.
Zuma said he did have a lot of regrets but that that now it was time to move on.
“I’m not an angel. I live in this world,” said Zuma. ”You make mistakes, you develop, you ove forward.”
