South Africa: Jacob Zuma Asks High Court to Scrap Fraud Charges

Jacob Zuma, leader of the ruling African National Congress, yesterday asked the high court to quash corruption charges against him in a case that is likely to decide whether or not he will be South Africa's next president.

Zuma faces more than a dozen charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud - involving about 4m rand (£285,000) - as part of a wider investigation into alleged bribery in the country's largest weapons-buying deal.

But the ANC accuses prosecutors of "political persecution" and the judiciary of "mobilizing" against Zuma in a confrontation that some see as one of the severest tests to date of South Africa's newly established democratic institutions.

On Friday the chief justice, Pius Langa, in a thinly veiled reference to vitriolic criticism by Zuma's supporters, warned that personal and political attacks on the judiciary threatened to subvert the "very foundation of democracy".

Zuma's lawyers told the high court that the prosecution was illegitimate because it reversed an earlier decision by a former director of public prosecutions not to pursue the case. Pierre Moynot, the head of the South African arm of Thint, a French weapons manufacturer, is charged with bribing Zuma.

Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, is serving a 15-year prison term for procuring bribes on Zuma's behalf. The judge in the case said there was "overwhelming" evidence of a corrupt relationship between Shaik and Zuma.

That case led President Thabo Mbeki to sack Zuma as the country's deputy president, opening a bitter rift between the two men that has Zuma's supporters accusing the president of pursuing a political prosecution against him.

A conviction would not only see Zuma sentenced to a long jail term but scupper his attempt to replace Mbeki as president in next year's election. The case before the Pietermaritzburg high court, even if unsuccessful, is likely to delay a full trial.

The ANC leadership has attempted to pressure the judiciary by alleging a judicial conspiracy against Zuma after the constitutional court ruled last week that prosecutors legally seized documents crucial to their case.

The Communist party secretary-general, Blade Nzimande, called the constitutional court judgment "vindictive".

The controversy deepened after Langa gave his speech in which he called for an end to attacks on the judiciary, in part because the judge presiding over the ANC leader's case, Chris Nicholson, was in the audience. Another vocal Zuma supporter, Zwelinzima Vavi, leader of South Africa's trades union confederation, said: "We believe he is innocent. We believe he's being treated unfairly. He's not above the law but hands off our president."

Nelson Mandela waded into the row with a call at the weekend for the institutions of South Africa's recent democracy to be respected.