PIETERMARITZBURG (South Africa), Aug 5: A South African judge said on Tuesday he would decide next month on ruling party leader Jacob Zuma's bid to have a corruption case against him dismissed.
The case is the biggest obstacle to Zuma succeeding President Thabo Mbeki after general elections next year, almost certain to be won by the ANC, but any delay increases the chance that he could already be in office before any trial starts.
“The court is going to reserve judgment in the main application. The judgment will be given on the 12th of September,” judge Chris Nicholson said.
Nicholson set a Dec 8 start date for Zuma's corruption trial in the event that he fails to have the charges dismissed.
But analysts said it was possible that a trial might be delayed for months, even years, as he would be able to turn to the appeals court and then South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court.
Zuma denies the charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering, but says he will step down if convicted. The ANC wants all charges to be dropped.
After Tuesday's proceedings, Zuma told supporters outside the court in his powerbase KwaZulu-Natal province:
“If the case goes to trial, it is going to be long because I will call witnesses. Maybe the truth will come out when the case has started.”
A long trial could overlap with the general election, risking increased political instability in Africa's biggest economy.
DELAYS POSSIBLE: “It's unimaginable that Zuma's trial will have concluded by election day in 2009. The last appeal might well stretch even beyond a one-term Zuma presidency, which would end in 2014,” said political scientist Keith Gottschalk of the University of the Western Cape.
The ANC-dominated parliament may also move to prevent Zuma being prosecuted when he is president, said Aubrey Matshiqi, a political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies.
“It is possible that we will be faced with a situation where our head of state is facing criminal charges, but ... we cannot rule out the possibility that the ANC majority will be used to pass legislation according to which a sitting head of state cannot be prosecuted,” Matshiqi said.
Zuma's strong links with trade unions worry some investors, who see Mbeki's policies as more pro-business, but they are also concerned about continuing uncertainty.
The ANC leader is accused of taking 783 bribes totalling 4.07 million rand ($553,400) over a 10-year period. Most of the alleged payments were connected to his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, now serving 15 years in prison for corruption.
Zuma is also accused of soliciting a 500,000 rand bribe from French arms group Thint relating to a massive arms deal arranged by South Africa in the late 1990s.
Charges against Zuma were dropped in 2005 for technical reasons, although Mbeki fired him as deputy president.
Prosecutors renewed the charges shortly after Zuma beat Mbeki last December to win the ANC leadership.
His supporters say the case is a conspiracy by Mbeki loyalists aimed at derailing Zuma's political ambitions.
“Our (ANC) president is a target of a political conspiracy and we are convinced that this conspiracy is led by our state president,” Julius Malema, leader of the ANC's militant youth league, told scores of Zuma chanting supporters outside the court.—Reuters
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