Accuser's revelations stun court

A hushed court heard the accuser in the Zuma trial say today that she had been raped three times as a child. And in a second revelation, she said she considered herself gay.

Her notes for an autobiography, handed in to the Johannesburg High Court as evidence today, revealed that an ANC court held in exile had fined two men six months' pay for having sex with her - because she was a child at the time.

The woman, who may not be identified, said she had been raped when she was five, again when she was 13, and again when she was 13 or 14 .

The shaven-headed HIV/Aids activist also told the court: "I've had sex with men and women, but I consider my sexual orientation to be lesbian."

She has accused former deputy president Jacob Zuma of raping her at his Forest Town, Johannesburg house last November. Zuma has pleaded not guilty to rape, but admitted consensual sex with the woman, who is HIV-positive.

The latest revelations came as Zuma's counsel, Kemp J Kemp SC, continued his cross-examination today.

To the woman's surprise, he presented to the court what he said were notes she had written in 2002 for the manuscript of an autobiographical book.

The notes reveal that to this day one of the men found guilty by the ANC court denies he had sex with her when she was in her early teens and feels he was dealt "rough justice".

The woman insists they had sex with her without her consent, but the court heard that the ANC court found that she had agreed to sex.

Both men were members of the exile community.

One, who had been living in her parent's house, said her mother had "given her to him", by allowing her to walk around the house improperly dressed.

The woman's notes also say the man's girlfriend beat her but he did not intervene. At one stage he stood at the door and said:"That's enough".

The woman said her mother had been devastated to hear that the man (living in her house) had had sex with her and would never have allowed it. "I very clearly remember my mother saying he has no right to do it and that even if I was a prostitute he would not have the right."

The ANC court was established after women close to her got to hear that the man had forced himself on her.

When the 16 pages of autobiography were produced today, the court fell dead silent, with only the turning of pages in reporters' notebooks audible.

The few people present for the in-camera hearing leaned forward to catch every word.

The woman said she was upset that the defence had managed to get hold of a copy of a private document, which was unfinished and unedited.

The notes also contained a description of an incident when she was five years old, in which she, a boy of the same age and another girl experimented sexually in a toilet.

"Would you describe this incident here as a rape of yourself?" Kemp asked.

"I was raped at the age of five, but that was a different incident. This was about three children in the toilet experimenting," she said.

Kemp asked her if names in the document were real.

"I'm having trouble. Am I implicating other people? This is bit difficult.

"There are journalists here and other people I may not trust," she said.

"I'm going to put it you that the people in here are real people, not imaginary," Kemp said.

Earlier he had asked her whether she considered herself to be sexually experienced.

She replied that she had some sexual experience.

Kemp asked her how many men she had been intimate with.

"I don't know if I'd remember, but I'd say five men," she said, emphasising the word.

With acknowledgement to Gill Gifford & Karyn Maughan and Cape Argus.