South African President Thabo Mbeki Tuesday night broke his silence on his former deputy president Jacob Zuma's rape charge, saying it was important to stick to the principle that a person should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Answering questions about Jacob Zuma during a live broadcast on Radio Metro, he said what has happened to Zuma - who was formally charged with rape earlier in the day, and was previously charged with corruption - had been "somewhat of a burden" in the sense of the sadness and grief it caused.
 
"I think that it's been a heavy year from that point of view, but of course I think we need to sustain the position that we've taken that we must respect the principle that everybody's innocent till proven guilty," he added.

He stressed: "It's indeed important to stick to this principle and not do anything that's in contradiction to that."

Zuma, already facing corruption charges, was indicted for rape Tuesday in a case that could destroy his chances of taking the helm of a country seen as a political and economic model across the continent.

Zuma, who was dismissed from government but remains No. 2 in the governing African National Congress (ANC), declared his innocence but said he was voluntarily withdrawing from his party's leadership structures for the duration of the trial.

Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma in June after he was implicated in a bribery scandal. The dismissal opened a rift within the ANC, where Zuma retains huge support among left-leaning members as well as the party's trade union and South African Communist Party allies.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2005)