Jacob Zuma's accuser went on a shopping trip to Tanzania while under police protection as she waited to give evidence against the former deputy president.

This emerged in the Johannesburg High Court yesterday during the battle of wits waged between Zuma's counsel, Kemp J Kemp SC, and Dr Merle Friedman, a clinical psychologist who examined the 31-year-old woman.

Zuma has pleaded not guilty to rape.

After grilling Friedman about her 12-page report on the complainant's reaction during and after the alleged rape, Kemp suddenly changed tack and asked her about a mention of "shopping" he had read in her notes - an apparent reference to activities that helped the woman deal with the stress of her alleged rape.

"She mentioned that she likes shopping a lot," Friedman said.

Kemp asked Friedman if the complainant had made any mention of going to Dar-es-Salaam during the shopping discussion.

"Dar es Salaam? ... Yes, she told me she had visited Tanzania," Friedman answered.

"Did she tell you where she got the money (for the trip)?" Kemp asked.

This was in apparent reference to evidence that the complainant had been a voluntary worker for a number of years before the rape and was raising money to further her studies.

"That's not my business - that's not what I'm concerned with," a flustered Friedman responded.

The Cape Argus has determined that despite references in court by the complainant to being kept under witness protection in the months before Zuma's trial, she was in fact under the care of the police crime intelligence unit.

But efforts to determine the exact nature of the complainant's protection - and the allowance allocated to her - have failed, with police unwilling to comment about any aspect of the woman's security.

Kemp has asked the complainant why she has three passports - one of which she revealed had been secured with "the assistance of government" - and where she kept them.

Friedman maintained in her report that the self-described "freezing" of Zuma's accuser during her alleged rape ordeal was consistent with the behaviour of a rape survivor, particularly considering that the woman had been "completely overwhelmed and shocked" by the alleged rape.

"She froze because she was not able to believe what happened," Friedman said.

But Kemp took issue with Friedman's failure to mention any aspect of the complainant's clinical history before the rape.

Friedman testified that she had been aware of the complainant's claims that she had been raped at 5, 13, 14 and 19 (while she was studying at a theological college), but appeared to be unaware of the complainant's alleged rape claims against a fellow church council member, a pastor, a fellow student called Nestor, and a Namibian known as Goeieman.

But Friedman maintained: "I knew enough to get a sense of where she was coming from."

Arguing that a full knowledge of the complainant's history would be essential to determining her experience of and reaction to her alleged rape, Kemp suggested that Friedman had not acted professionally when she evaluated the woman - a charge she denied.

Kemp also took issue with Friedman's argument that the complainant was not sophisticated enough to fake the symptoms of psychological trauma.

According to medical evidence presented yesterday, the woman suffered a tear to her vagina caused by forceful or passionate sex.

Dr Mupata Likibi, the doctor who examined her, said that apart from the small tear, the woman had not been physically injured in any way.

With acknowledgement to Karyn Maughan, Jeremy Gordin, Gill Gifford and Cape Argus.