Key trial forces South Africa to confront rape

After court sessions, Zuma has led supporters in his trademark apartheid-era struggle song, which translates, "Bring me my machine gun." Zuma was once a member of the military wing of the African National Congress - and was imprisoned for 10 years with Nelson Mandela. The song has become so controversial it's been banned from a government radio station.

The case is set to resume Monday, at which point Zuma's lawyers are expected formally to ask the court to dismiss the charges on the basis of a weak prosecution case. This could save Zuma from potentially embarrassing cross-examination during testimony.

As with the Thomas-Hill drama, the Zuma saga isn't only about sex. Now, as then, politics swirls. Mr. Thomas declared the campaign against him a "high-tech lynching" by political enemies.

Zuma's biggest enemy may be his former boss - longtime rival and South African President Thabo Mbeki. With corruption clouds gathering, Mr. Mbeki "released" Zuma from the post of deputy president last June.

In a separate trial slated for July, Zuma faces corruption charges - ones that his supporters say are part of a plot to destroy his career.

Mbeki's firing crippled plans by the popular, charismatic, pro-labor Zuma to ascend to the presidency. Mbeki and Zuma are on opposite ends of the African National Congress spectrum - and are from different ethnic groups. As Mbeki maneuvers to guarantee a like-minded, economically conservative successor, "The Zuma trial is so important," says Sipho Seepe, a columnist and academic head at Henley Management College here. If there's a conviction, "It removes a potential contender from the throne."

Elsewhere in Africa, meanwhile, where rape is all too common - including as a tool of war - there are signs of fading impunity. Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf aims to curtail the sexual violence that was rampant during a 14-year civil war. Her government has eliminated bail for accused rapists and pledged to enforce tough new anti-rape laws. And Thomas Lubanga, a former Congo warlord accused of orchestrating mass pillaging and rape, made his first appearance this week at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. He is the first suspect to stand trial since the ICC was created nearly four years ago. Rights groups say tens of thousands of women have been raped in Congo in recent years.

In the end, given South Africa's patriarchal culture, many observers expect Zuma to be acquitted. Women's groups say that an acquittal could further chill rape survivors' willingness to confront attackers. Already, only about 1 in 9 rapes is reported to police, according to a 2002 report by the South African Medical Research Council.

"Anybody who's seen what this woman has gone through is just not going to want to come forward," says Dee Smythe, a gender and justice researcher at the University of Cape Town.

Yet there's new momentum from civil society and some ANC officials to boost women's rights, including by passing a sexual-offenses law. It would, among other things, introduce "coercive circumstances" - situations in which the attacker has significant power over the victim - as a relevant factor in rape cases.

Passing such laws hardly guarantees on-the-ground changes. Yet "the increased pressure that has come out of the trial" to pass the bill, says Ms. Smythe, has been "really useful."

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