S.Africa's Zuma in the clear - graft charges dropped (1st Lead)

Apr 6, 2009, 10:28 GMT

Johannesburg - Prosecutors in South Africa announced on Monday that they were withdrawing corruption charges against ruling African National Congress (ANC) leader, Jacob Zuma, clearing the way for him to take power next month without the spectre of a trial.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said it took the decision after weeks of consultations with Zuma's lawyers, who submitted evidence pointing to a political motivation behind the timing of the charges. The lifting of the charges has yet to be confirmed in court.

Zuma was charged with corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering in connection with a 1990s state arms deal after he defeated ex-president Thabo Mbeki in an ANC leadership vote in December 2007.

Acting NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe said the authority had concluded, on the basis of secret recordings of conversations between the lead investigator in the case and a former chief prosecutor , it was 'neither possible nor desirable for the NPA to continue with the prosecution of Mr Zuma.'

The NPA found evidence of 'serious abuse of process' by the former head of the prosecuting body's special investigations unit.

The NPA head however discounted allegations made by Zuma's supporters that Mbeki himself meddled in the case, saying: 'We could not find any trace indicating that the president was involved in all of this.'

Zuma, 66, is poised to become president of the country in a few short weeks following general elections on April 22 that the ANC is expected to easily win.

Had the NPA maintained the case it built against him over eight years he would have stood trial in August.

The charges related to a string of payments totalling around 4 million rand (360,000 dollars) that Zuma received over a 10-year period from his businessman friend Schabir Shaik, who was convicted of fraud over the multi-billion-dollar arms deal.

Zuma was deputy president of the country for part of the period covered by the payment but Mbeki fired him in 2005 on suspicion of corruption.

The question of whether to withdraw the charges, and save Zuma from having to defend himself in an open court, had deeply divided South Africans.

Zuma was first charged in 2005. The charges were reinstated twice after being set aside twice by the courts on technicalities.

Zuma's supporters in the ANC and allied trade union movement and the South African Communist Party had argued he was being hounded by prosecutors loyal to Mbeki, who was ousted as president by the ANC last September after a court inferred he had a hand in the decision to charge Zuma.

Opposition parties and most local newspapers, on the other hand, had warned that evidence of a political hidden hand in the case still did not mean Zuma was innocent and had warned he would continue to be tainted by the allegations unless he cleared his name in court.