ANC leader Zuma bids to get corruption charges dropped

The 66-year-old former guerrilla fighter stands accused, along with a French arms company, of bribery in a multibillion-pound arms deal concluded in 1999.

But Mr Zuma and his supporters claim the case amounts to political persecution and should be dismissed.

If Judge Chris Nicholson agrees, he could drop all charges against Mr Zuma.

But if not, Zuma could face trial later this year – although it is doubtful that any process would be complete before next year’s parliamentary elections, which could complicate his presidential ambitions.

In South Africa, the president is chosen by the party that wins the elections.

Mr Zuma’s lawyers are expected to argue in High Court today that the case has dragged on too long and is unlawful and unconstitutional. They maintain that Mr Zuma’s right to a speedy and fair trial have been violated.

Charges were filed against Zuma in 2005 and then thrown out the next year on a technicality, but within days of him being elected ANC president last year, the National Prosecuting Authority said it had new evidence and filed racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud charges.

ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe accused the Prosecuting Authority of denying Mr Zuma “fair and equal treatment.”

“This matter is not simply about Jacob Zuma. It is about the principles and practices upon which we intend to build a new society, one that is democratic, just and equitable,” Mr Motlanthe said on the ANC’s website.

Mr Zuma has become very popular with South Africans, many of whom want change after 10 years under President Thabo Mbeki, and Zuma’s supporters say he has been made a scapegoat in a scandal that reaches the presidency.

South Africa’s Sunday Times reported yesterday that Mr Mbeki accepted a 30 million rands (£2 million) bribe from a German shipbuilding company, and gave part of this to Mr Zuma and the rest to the ANC. Mr Mbeki’s spokesman said there was no basis to the report.

Mr Zuma ousted Mr Mbeki as ANC leader in December and, given the party’s huge majority, is expected to succeed his rival as president following next year’s elections.

Mr Zuma, who was a leader of the exiled ANC military wing during apartheid, grew up in poverty and without formal schooling. He strikes a chord with the young and unemployed, speaking their language rather than spouting Shakespearean sonnets like Mr Mbeki.

President Mbeki fired Mr Zuma as the country’s deputy president in 2005, after Mr Zuma’s financial adviser was sentenced to 15 years in jail for trying to elicit bribes from French company Thint, formerly Thomson CSF.

Mr Zuma allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds in bribes from Thint to use his influence and stop investigations into arms deal contracts with the government, prosecutors claim.

Prosecutors won an important victory on Thursday when the Constitutional Court upheld a ruling that the 2005 police seizure of incriminating documents from Mr Zuma’s home and office was legal. It also ruled that prosecutors could bring documents from Mauritius about a meeting between a Thint executive and Mr Zuma.

The ruling prompted Zuma loyalists to question the Constitutional Court judges’ integrity. Top ANC member Blade Nzimande, who also heads the Communist Party, accused the judges of throwing South Africa into a “constitutional crisis” - comments that led opposition parties to voice concern about the future independence of the judiciary.

“We will accompany Jacob Zuma to court and to the presidency,” Mr Nzimande said. “He will be the next president of the republic of South Africa, irrespective of whatever is happening.”