Former deputy president Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty to a rape charge today, saying he had sexual relations with the woman who lodged the accusation but that it was consensual.

"We had sex for some time. It was consensual," Zuma said in a statement read by his lawyer to a packed Johannesburg courtroom as he entered a not guilty plea in the politically-charged case.

Hundreds of Zuma supporters demonstrated outside the court, while a rival women’s group held a protest in support of the plaintiff, a 31-year-old AIDS activist and longtime family friend.

The former deputy president appeared before Judge Willem van der Merwe, appointed last week to preside over the trial.

The trial was postponed last month after Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe recused himself.

Another judge, Transvaal Deputy Judge-President Jeremiah Shongwe, also recused himself following media reports that Zuma had fathered a son with Shongwe’s sister.

Van der Merwe has handled some of the most celebrated and controversial cases in post-apartheid SA.

These include the trial of apartheid-era assassin Eugene de Kock and that of four white Gauteng policemen who set dogs on three black Mozambicans. With Reuters

With acknowledgement to the Business Day and Sapa.