AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	31. Sexuality and Politics in Africa
Paper ID	474
Author(s)	Suttner, Raymond Sorrel
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	Jacob Zuma, ANC Deputy President, was charged with rape during 2006. The trial unfolded during an unprecedented crisis of the organisation, following Zuma’s dismissal as Deputy State President in 2005. At times, angry followers of Zuma burnt T shirts bearing the image of President Mbeki amidst a widespread sense of a conspiracy to deny Zuma the Presidency of the ANC and the country, after the expiration of Mbeki’s term. Earlier Zuma had been implicated in a corruption case and was later to face charges, later withdrawn on a technicality (with the likelihood of their reinstatement). In this context there was widespread belief that the rape charges were themselves manufactured within this wider conspiracy. The trial unfolded as an exercise of gender and political power, performed in and outside the court. Inside, the complainant’s ‘sexual history’ was scrutinised to show she was a ‘serial rape accuser’. The mode of defence was an attack on her integrity, and evidence by Zuma relied on a conservative and contestable version of Zulu culture. Unfortunately the prosecution left Zuma’s cultural pronouncements unchallenged. In the judgment itself one saw a ‘meeting of minds’ between judge and accused/defence, with both positing specific norms by which one assessed whether or not a claim of rape was genuine, in particular that the complainant should behave in particular way, scream for help, say ‘no’, etc. In this respect, conventional rape stereotypes were replicated At one point three women’s groups sought to enter the case in order to highlight some of the deficiencies of the law and the way the case was conducted, prejudicial to the alleged rape survivor/victim. The complainant opposed this intervention but the activist groups nevertheless continued and have not explained why they overrode her wishes, in a situation where the complainant was already in court on the basis that she claimed power had been exercised against her will. Outside the court room another drama was played out, including intimidation of the complainant and her supporters– media debate and Zuma himself singing his ‘favourite song’ –‘bring me my machine gun’ to crowds that gathered. In a sense the image of a gun as phallic symbol and firing of bullets as ejaculation appeared as re-enactment of the alleged rape. The paper relates Zuma and his supporters’ conduct to the context of ANC political crisis and the notion of ANC masculinities which draws partly on a warrior tradition, stretching back to the precolonial past, a tradition where notions of a warrior (as in many cultures) include both heroism and exercise of power over women, including rape. It is not argued that this is a dominant element but that it is possible to draw on this notion of masculinities as part of our understanding of this case. In general, the paper argues that the case and its surrounding performative elements constituted a setback for both gender equality and democratic debate.

Power and ANC Masculinities :the Jacob Zuma rape trial