May 25, 2013
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa's president-in-waiting, Jacob Zuma, has withdrawn from a charity fundraising banquet honoring former boxer Mike Tyson after receiving criticism from women's groups in his country.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world and Tyson served a three-year sentence for the 1991 rape of an 18-year-old beauty queen. Zuma himself was found not guilty of raping a family friend two years ago.
Reporters arriving at the event were handed a statement from organizers saying Zuma "had been called away on urgent African National Congress business, according to a spokesperson in his office."
They did not elaborate.
