By Karyn Maughan, Gill Gifford and Jeremy Gordin
Days after Jacob Zuma's accuser laid a rape charge against him, high-profile Zuma supporters arranged and paid for her to spend six hours with a Johannesburg lawyer.
But while the session was organised by controversial ex-journalist Ranjeni Munusamy and paid for by Zuma ally and KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Zweli Mkhize, attorney Yusuf Dockrat on Wednesday denied claims that he tried to pressure the complainant to withdraw her charge.
Despite testifying that Munusamy's repeated calls "to find out what was happening" had raised certain ethical concerns with him, Dockrat has also denied that either Munusamy or Mkhize had "acted improperly".
According to Dockrat, Mkhize - who had also paid for the complainant's mother to fly to Johannesburg and stay in a hotel while she visited her daughter after the alleged rape incident - had expressed the hope that the complainant's case against Zuma could be settled.
Munusamy "was concerned about the allegations and was hopeful that it would amount to naught", he said.
Dockrat's evidence followed telephone and cellphone evidence, led by the state, which revealed an intricate web of communication between Zuma, Mkhize, Dockrat, Munusamy and the complainant, her mother and friends in the period prior to and after the alleged rape incident.
In a 31-slide presentation, communications consultant and phone-record analyst Jan le Roux showed that Zuma's accuser had sent him 54 SMSes in the two months before he allegedly raped her. After the alleged rape, these SMSes stopped completely.
Corroborating the complainant's evidence that Zuma had repeatedly tried to phone her on November 9, and that she had initially refused to answer his calls, nine calls were recorded from Zuma's phone to that of his accuser.
Describing the ninth call, which lasted for 476 seconds, Zuma's accuser earlier testified: "I didn't want to answer the phone, but my minder made me. Malume (Zuma) asked 'Am I comfortable to talk?' And then I said 'Talk'.
"And then he said his phone had been frozen and he had lost my number. He said that when he got my number, he tried to call me and my phone was off."
According to the complainant, Zuma had tried to persuade her to visit him in Durban and offered to pay for her flight.
She testified that she had then asked him if her mother could accompany her on the proposed trip.
"He said that would be good because he wanted to speak to my mother. I said to him: 'What do you want to talk about? Do you want to talk about the steps that I have taken?'
"He said he wanted to talk about him, and the steps that I had taken might come into that," she said.
The complainant said she had not visited Zuma but, nearly a week after her conversation with him, she said she had met with Dockrat.
Dockrat gave a measured account of his interaction with the complainant and her family and friends on November 15. He suggested that he had only briefly addressed the issue of withdrawing the rape charge, after the complainant's mother brought up the topic.
But this version contrasted with the testimony given by the complainant and her friend, Kimi Msibi, the secretary of Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.
In her evidence before the Johannesburg High Court last week, the complainant claimed that while Dockrat had initially "seemed helpful and like he genuinely wanted to help", he had later applied increasing amounts of pressure on her to withdraw the charge.
Msibi agreed with Dockrat that the complainant's mother had been "tired" and was concerned about her daughter proceeding with her case against Zuma, but also testified that, towards the end of the meeting, Dockrat "was pushing" the complainant to withdraw the charge.
"(He said to her) you can withdraw, you can withdraw, you can withdraw," claimed Msibi, adding that the complainant had agreed to think about his proposal, "just to make him let go".
Both Msibi and Dockrat agreed with the complainant's testimony that she had never agreed to a withdrawal of the rape charge. Dockrat described the complainant as being "upset and tense" at the time that he consulted with her.