An HIV-positive AIDS activist testified in court on Monday that South Africa's former Deputy President Jacob Zuma raped her without a condom, in a case that could end the charismatic leader's political career.
The 31-year-old woman, a long-time Zuma family friend, gave graphic testimony as she took the stand for the first time.
As more than 2,000 Zuma supporters demonstrated outside the Johannesburg courthouse, his accuser told how the man once seen as South Africa's likely next president offered to "tuck her in" and then had sex with her against her will.
"I thought 'oh no, uncle (Zuma) cannot be naked, he is on top of me and I am in his house,'" the woman said between sobs in the hushed courtroom.
"I thought this can't be happening. And at that point I faced reality that I was just about to be raped."
Zuma, once seen as the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki in 2009 but now embroiled in separate sex and graft scandals, sat stony-faced during the woman's testimony, which followed his own not-guilty plea earlier on Monday.
Zuma's attorney read a statement to the court in which Zuma conceded having had consensual sex with the woman, but denied that a rape had occurred.
"The woman visited my home on November 2 on her own volition. We had sex for some time. It was consensual," it said.
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