Six years after President Jacob Zuma was acquitted of a rape charge, the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) wants to bring his accuser back to SA through the Bring Khwezi Home campaign.
Manku Noruka, the head of Azapo’s women and gender affairs department, said on Wednesday: “We need a face for the campaign. She took a risk… against one of the most powerful people in South Africa.”
Khwezi (not her real name) accused Zuma, a friend of her father’s, of raping her.
The trial ended on May 8, 2006. Zuma was acquitted and Khwezi and her mother sought asylum in the Netherlands.
Azapo’s deputy national spokesman, Funani kaNtontela, said they would be contacting the SA embassy in the Netherlands to see if they had information as to Khwezi’s whereabouts.
They are also in touch with a journalist who they believe has information regarding her whereabouts.
Ntontela said they did not know if Khwezi even wants to come home, but they were calling on the president to give her the option and the guarantee of protection if she, her mother and other family members were to return to SA.
“We want to make use of her name as One In Nine (a campaign) to report rape,” Ntontela said.
Ntontela said the committee was looking for Khwezi to be the figurehead for the greater movement to help all abused women in SA.
According to Azapo, a woman is raped in SA every 17 seconds.
The Star