South Africa's Zuma, Acquitted of Rape but Rebuked for Unsafe Sex

On Monday in Johannesburg, former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma was found not guilty of raping an HIV-positive woman; however, he faced harsh criticism from the judge for not using a condom despite knowing the accuser's status. Zuma, the former head of the National AIDS Council (NAC), maintained the sex was consensual. The woman testified that as an AIDS activist, she would have never had unprotected sex and risked exposing a partner to HIV.

"It is totally unacceptable that a man should have unprotected sex with a person other than his regular partner and definitely not with a person who, to his knowledge, is HIV-positive," said Judge Willem van der Merwe as he concluded his six-hour judgment in the trial.

During the trial, to the shock of AIDS activists in a country with an estimated 6.5 million infections, Zuma testified that he showered after having sex with the woman to reduce his risk of contracting HIV. "I do not even want to comment on the effect of a shower after having had unprotected sex," said the judge. "Had Rudyard Kipling known of this case at the time he wrote his poem 'If,' he might have added the following: 'And if you can control your body and your sexual urges, then you are a man, my son,'" the judge admonished.

While heading NAC, Zuma helped develop its ABC campaign to promote Abstinence, Being Faithful, and using Condoms to help combat HIV/AIDS.

Tembile Yeko, secretary general of the South African Students' Congress, called on Zuma to apologize to the nation for "being unfaithful and for not wearing a condom," and on the governing African National Congress to publicly denounce his high-risk sexual behavior.

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