CAPE TOWN —
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma put on a brave face yesterday,
turning a funeral in Mpumalanga and a Congress of South African Trade
Unions rally in Rustenburg, North West, into a charm offensive a day
before he appears in court on rape charges.
Wyndham Hartley
Zuma is scheduled to appear in court in Johannesburg today.
A crowd of supporters is expected to greet him outside
the court in a scene reminiscent of his earlier appearances at the
Durban High Court, where he is facing corruption charges.
In one of the appearances, angry crowds supporting Zuma burned T-shirts with pictures of President Thabo Mbeki.
Justice department spokesman Leslie Mashokwe said security would be tight for today’s court appearance:
“As a result of the activities at previous hearings and
because of the many people expected at court, certain measures are
being implemented to ensure the safety of the public, as well as to
ensure minimum disruption of the courts.”
The entrance to the court would be from Von Wielligh Street.
All streets around the court will be closed between 6am and 4pm.
The police said more than 100 officers would be deployed
in and around the Johannesburg High Court and that all the roads
surrounding the court would be closed for the duration of the hearing.
Zuma’s first appearance on the rape charge in
Johannesburg was characterised by controversy, with the public and the
media being refused entry by the police.
Weekend newspapers also published stories about increased
security around the alleged victim, a 31-year-old AIDS activist, and
the prosecution team.
At yesterday’s funeral service for Judas Tsotetsi, the
Mpumalanga South African Communist Party secretary, in Witbank, Zuma
had called for a review of democracy in SA, the SABC reported.
Today’s opening proceedings of the rape trial could be
scuttled by an expected application for the recusal of Transvaal Judge
President Bernard Ngoepe who is set to hear the matter.
The Jacob Zuma Trust Fund expects about 5000 people to
attend its picket in support of Zuma, “to raise our opposition (to) and
rejection of the manner in which comrade Jacob Zuma has been treated by
some within some organs of state and institutions of democracy”.
The African National Congress Youth League would also join the trust’s picket, said spokesman Zizi Kodwa.
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