South African prosecutors have filed an application for a court order that could clear the way for new criminal charges against former deputy president Jacob Zuma, prosecution documents showed on Tuesday.
The corruption trial of the popular Zuma, once seen as the most likely successor to President Thabo Mbeki, collapsed in September, keeping alive hopes for his rise to the top.
Controversy around Zuma has split the ruling African National Congress (ANC), tested Mbeki’s hold on power and set the stage for a rocky party leadership conference in 2007.
The National Prosecution Authority (NPA) said earlier it was weighing new charges against Zuma stemming from a South African arms-procurement deal in 1999 that sparked a graft scandal.
On Tuesday the NPA gave Reuters details of its application for a court order to obtain key documents held by authorities in Mauritius. They were seized from a local branch of a French arms contractor that had been charged along with Zuma.
The documents include a diary in which a former head of the French firm, Thint, made a note of a meeting he allegedly had with Zuma and his aide Schabir Shaik agreeing a bribe for Zuma.
Shaik was convicted on fraud and corruption charges.
Prosecutors say the diary and other documents would confirm that a bribe for Zuma was discussed and agreed.
”The information contained in these documents will be required for any prosecution that may arise,” the NPA said in an affidavit filed on Tuesday in the Durban High Court.
”There is a reasonable prospect that charges could in future be re-instituted against one or more of the erstwhile accused,” it said.
The application asks the court to request the Mauritius authorities to hand over the documents in terms of South Africa’s International Cooperation in Criminal Matters Act.
Zuma and Thint have until next February to oppose the application.
Controversial sacking
Mbeki fired Zuma after he was implicated in Shaik’s trial. Zuma was not charged with Shaik, who is now serving a 15-year jail sentence.
Zuma was later charged, along with Thint, but a high court judge struck off the case in September when prosecutors said they were not ready to proceed to trial.
A former hero of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, Zuma says charges against him are part of a political plot in the ANC to prevent him from becoming president.
Radical factions of the ANC have backed this view and thousands of Zuma’s grassroots followers showed up in force during his court appearances. They have threatened more serious action if fresh charges are brought against Zuma.
Many Zuma supporters hold Mbeki personally responsible for their hero’s political troubles and have openly abused Mbeki in public. Earlier this month, Mbeki faced booing crowds who staged a mass walkout as he made a public speech in a stadium in Zuma’s stronghold town of Pietermaritzburg.
Zuma, who was present, intervened to stop the exodus.
Analysts say political tensions could run even higher in the run-up to December 2007 when the ANC holds its next five-yearly national conference that will choose its next leader. Given the ANC’s political dominance, such a leader is guaranteed to become South Africa’s next president in 2009.
Zuma remains the ANC’s deputy president and therefore a strong contender if he scales any new legal hurdle. But the stakes are getting bigger with Mbeki’s own supporters mounting a new campaign to keep him on as party leader even after he would have stepped down as the country’s president in 2009. — Reuters