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By Clare Nullis

Zuma bids to have charges
of fraud, corruption dropped

Outside, several thousand Zuma supporters staged a peaceful rally, singing the anti-apartheid song “Bring Me My Machine Gun,” which has become Zuma’s trademark.

Jacob Zuma, the man expected to become South Africa's next president, urged a court on Monday to dismiss corruption and fraud charges against him, as thousands of people rallied outside to support him.
The charges are the last major obstacle to Zuma's becoming the country's next leader. The former guerrilla fighter became head of the governing African National Congress in December, and will likely take the presidency if the ANC wins next year's general election, as expected.
On Monday, a gray-suited Zuma looked relaxed as he appeared in a Pietermaritzburg court for a last preliminary hearing in the case accusing him and a French arms company of bribery in a multi-billion-rand (dollar) 1999 arms deal.
Zuma and his supporters claim he is a victim of a political conspiracy to thwart his presidential ambitions. His lawyer argued Monday that the charges should be dropped because prosecutors failed to consult him before charging him and had dragged out the proceedings.
"We think the charges should be dropped," ANC spokesman Jessie Duarte told reporters.
"We think it is persecution, not prosecution."
If Judge Chris Nicholson disagrees and decides to send the case further, Zuma could face trial later this year – although it is doubtful that any process would be completed before next year's elections.
The winning party elects the president, and any legal uncertainty could hurt Zuma's candidacy.

Zuma grew up in poverty and without formal schooling, and strikes a chord with the young.

Some 70 ranking ANC members, including government ministers, packed the courtroom benches on Monday.
Outside, several thousand Zuma supporters staged a peaceful rally, singing the anti-apartheid song "Bring Me My Machine Gun," which has become Zuma's trademark.
Demonstrators carried placards reading "Zuma for President" and sold souvenirs bearing his image. They proclaimed their support for the man they hail already as "The People's President."
"He is a man of the people. He will make a good leader," demonstrator Sikhumbu Mbobo said. "Zuma's time has come."
Formerly a leader of the exiled ANC military wing during apartheid, Zuma has become wildly popular among South Africans wanting change after 10 years under President Thabo Mbeki.
Zuma grew up in poverty and without formal schooling, and strikes a chord with the young and unemployed, speaking their language rather than spouting Shakespearean sonnets like Mbeki.
He fell out with Mbeki in 2005, when Mbeki fired him as the country's deputy president after Zuma's financial adviser was sentenced to 15 years in jail for trying to elicit bribes from French company Thint, formerly Thomson CSF.
Charges filed against Zuma in 2005 were thrown out the next year on a technicality. But within days of him being elected ANC president, the National Prosecuting Authority said it had new evidence and filed racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud charges regarding the same 1999 arms deal.
Prosecutors argue that Zuma accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Thint to use his influence and stop investigations into government arms deal contracts.
Zuma's lawyer, Kemp J. Kemp, argued that the case against Zuma should be thrown out altogether. Kemp said the Prosecuting Authority had violated its constitutional obligations by not consulting Zuma before he was charged in 2005. Zuma's lawyers also argue that the case has dragged on too long, violating Zuma's right to a speedy and fair trial.
The prosecution countered that these arguments were "beside the point."
Prosecutor Wim Trengove said Zuma's claims that he was entitled to be consulted before being charged were "bad in law and bad in fact."
The hearing resumes today.
Thint's South African CEO Pierre Moynot is charged along with Zuma, but the judge agreed to a request by both prosecutors and Moynot to postpone Moynot's criminal case until Dec. 8.
Opposition leader Helen Zille on Monday called for Zuma to step down as a presidential candidate and expressed concern about growing threats of violence by his supporters.
"The discourse surrounding Zuma's trial has shifted rapidly from menacing rhetoric to an all-out declaration of war by former soldiers," Zille said in a statement.
"This is effectively a promise of a military coup, if the courts find against Zuma." |||

Clare Nullis
is an Associated Press Writer.