I will never forget Khwezi's phone call - Kasrils

Pretoria - Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils said on Monday that he will never forget the moment the woman known as Khwezi called him and said that Jacob Zuma had raped her.

"Jacob Zuma and I knew Khwezi and her parents very well. They looked after us when we were in danger, underground in Swaziland, and Khwezi was this lovely seven-year-old niece of ours. We were her uncles," Kasrils told reporters at the High Court in Pretoria.

"She phoned me on the 4th of November 2005, and I will never forget it in my life, the words [still] ring in my ear, it was on my mobile. I heard a voice say, 'Uncle Ronnie, Jacob Zuma has raped me'."

He said she was already on her way to lay charges against Zuma with an NGO when they spoke about it.

"I never had any part in manipulating her allegation."

Kasrils is suing MKMVA head Kebby Maphatsoe for R1m for defamation. Central to the case is Zuma's rape trial.

At the time that the charges were laid against Zuma by an HIV-positive daughter (Kwezi) of a family friend, Maphatsoe and other ANC officials maintained that Zuma was a victim of a "honey trap" - and that the woman was sent to seduce Zuma.

Zuma was acquitted, and he also maintained afterwards that he was the victim of a plot.

In 2014, before the national elections, Kasrils and former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge spearheaded a campaign called "Sidikiwe! Vukani Vote No!", which urged South Africans to vote for a minority party, or spoil their ballots.

'I won't keep the money'

Maphatsoe spoke out against the campaign and reportedly said the plot against Zuma had come from the intelligence ministry, and that Kasrils, who was intelligence minister at that time, had "handpicked the woman who alleged Zuma had raped her".

He also reportedly claimed that Kasrils had "sold out to foreign agencies" and was hostile to Umkhonto we Sizwe operatives who had been dismissed from service.

The trial was adjourned to Tuesday to allow the MKMVA to join the matter as the second defendant.

The MKMVA's attorney Mfana Gwala told reporters after proceedings on Monday that it wanted to join the matter because any comments Maphatsoe might have made were done in his capacity as head of the organisation.

Kasrils told reporters that he was bringing the case because had his reputation to protect.

"But actually, in this country of ours, a democracy, we need to put a stop to people who, at the drop of a hat, point fingers at those who criticise government or the ruling party and call us agents.

"[The damages]... could have been R10m. I don't want to be avaricious, in fact I won't keep the money to myself, I will give it to a worthy cause.

"It's a sad day, what has happened in terms of South Africa, the arrogance, the smear campaigning, the calling of people spies. What is so sad is that this has really come from the party of liberation, that one which I have served... and one of the reasons I left it is because it fell into the hands of people who behave this way."

'Arrogant and self-serving'

In reference to the ANC losing major metros during the recent local government election, Kasrils said the electorate responded accordingly.

"I am very happy with the way they have responded because we need to teach these people a lesson. They have become too arrogant and too self-serving."

When asked about his relationship with Maphatsoe, Kasrils said: "I have never had a relationship with Mr Maphatsoe at all. I might have met him in one or two meetings... I don't believe I've ever exchanged two words with him."

"I knew something about this man that made me absolutely have no care to meet or to know him, and that was the circumstance in which he had deserted an MK training camp in Uganda."

In September 2014, the Sunday Times reported that Maphatsoe had admitted that he had run away from an ANC military camp during the struggle days, and that he had lost his arm during that escape.

He reportedly said that his escape was for good intentions and that he was not a sell-out. He said that conditions in the camp were unbearable and that he left because of excessive punishment and inadequate food, and that he wanted to report this to senior ANC leaders back in South Africa.

This article first appeared on News24.