Cape Town – Khwezi, the woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape has died, her family said on Sunday, releasing her name for the first time since the rape trial that threatened to end his political career but ended in acquittal.
“It is with our deepest sorrow that the Kuzwayo family announces the passing of our daughter Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo. In our family she was lovingly known as Fezeka, and in the public domain her supporters called her Khwezi,” the family said in a statement.
She died on Saturday. The cause of death was not given by the family.
“Fezeka who passed on yesterday, 08 October, 2016, was a loving soul. A daughter, a sister and an aunt we will forever hold dear in our hearts. We loved her in life, let us never forget her after death.”
The Kuzwayo family said a private funeral service would be held, followed later by a public memorial service.
Zuma was charged with rape in December 2005, after an investigation into claims that he had raped the then 31-year-old woman, an HIV-positive family friend, at his home in Johannesburg.’
He argued that it was consensual sex, infamously adding that he had a shower to prevent HIV transmission, and was acquitted by the Johannesburg High Court the following year.
Kuzwayo, who for 10 years was known to the public only as Khwezi, maintained that she had been raped and sought refuge in the Netherlands. She returned to SA in 2014.
African News Agency