Zuma sworn in as South Africa's president - 9 May 09

Run time: 02:21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abSkEneSoTA   Posted on YouTube: May 09, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 09, 2009 By DU Member: balantz Views on DU: 547

 
"Jacob Zuma has officially become South Africa's new president - the fourth democratically-elected president since apartheid ended 15 years ago.

Zuma took the presidential oath at a ceremony in Pretoria, saying that the country was entering a new era in its history.

More than 11 million South Africans voted for the ANC. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports from the ceremony."

..that he's an admitted rapist.

"During his rape trial, Zuma took a “short skirt” excuse, claiming it was his duty as a Zulu warrior to have sex with a woman if she wore a short kanga (an African wrap), and that he could not leave her “unfulfilled.”

Zuma told the court that he knew the woman was “clearly aroused” by the fact that her kanga was “quite short” — meaning knee-length.

“In the Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready,” he explained."

Therefore, he could not be guilty.

“To deny her sex, that would have been tantamount to rape,” Zuma claimed. The accusing woman, who was 31 and HIV-positive at the time of the incident, is the daughter of one of Zuma’s now-dead liberation-war comrades. She alleged that when she went for advice in late 2005 to the home of the man she had known since childhood and had always called “uncle,” Zuma forced his 250-pound frame upon her.

During the subsequent trial, thousands of Zuma’s supporters congregated outside the courthouse, chanting “kill the bitch” and pelting the accuser with rocks as she arrived each morning.At one point, Zuma was caught attempting to bribe the victim’s aunt with an offer of two cows and a new garden fence in exchange for persuading the victim to withdraw the allegations.

But was Zuma, the former head of the National AIDS Council in a country where one in seven citizens are HIV-positive, and aware of the woman’s HIV-positive status, concerned about unprotected sex?

“I had a shower afterwards,” Zuma explained after announcing that he had chosen not to use a condom.

Flawed though you may be, if you can help the poor more than any other president, then you will have redeemed yourself.