Jacob Zuma’s defence team yesterday continued its relentless efforts to show that the 31-year-old woman who accused the former deputy president of raping her had made false rape claims in the past, by bringing in two more witnesses to testify.

The defence team also brought in three witnesses who made calls to Zuma on the night of the alleged rape to show that they did not plan to meet Zuma that night.

Zuma, standing trial in the Johannesburg High Court, has denied the charge and said the sex was consensual.

The three witnesses contradict the complainant’s testimony that when she visited Zuma in his study on November 2, Zuma told her he had just spoken to someone on the phone who wanted to see him that night.

Zuma testified that he had received a call while the complainant was in his room but that he did not have the meeting during the night.

However, the complainant testified that Zuma went to the guest bedroom where she was sleeping and told her he was still meeting some people he had spoken to on the phone and he would come back to her later.

Manase Majola from Durban told the court that she made a call to Zuma’s cellphone on November 2 at 10:04pm. When asked by defence senior counsel Kemp J Kemp why she made that call, Majola replied that she wanted Zuma to call her back as she needed help from him.

The defence also called in Sandile Sithole. The complainant claimed he tried to rape her in Durban in the 1990s.

“I took it as a joke because it is something I would never think of doing,” Sithole said.

African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor, Jeffrey Matlhabe, who the complainant said she suspected of raping her in 1995, denied raping her.

Matlhabe was a boarding master when the complainant was at the RR Wright School of Religion, commonly known as Wilberforce Institute, in Evaton, in 1995.

“The way I see it, she is trying to humiliate me in front of the whole nation,” Matlhabe said.

“I feel sorry for her, she is sick. She must get help otherwise many families will be destroyed.”

The trial continues.

Legal Affairs Correspondent

With acknowledgement to Ernest Mabuza and Busniess Day.