A South African judge on Wednesday postponed a hearing on ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma's corruption case to August 25, several months after he is expected to become the next president. Zuma is the candidate of the African National Congress in an election expected in April.
Judge Leona Theron said the criminal case was adjourned to August 25 and she would hear Zuma's application for a permanent stay of prosecution on that date. Court documents showed prosecutors and Zuma's lawyers had agreed on a postponement. It could mean Zuma appears in the dock as a serving president, increasing political uncertainty at a time investors are already concerned over the direction of policy in Africa's biggest economy.
But Zuma told supporters outside the court that he would not step down. "If I did so, I would be pleading before being guilty. I am not (guilty)," he said. The ANC might try to change the constitution to grant a serving president immunity, but the party would need to win a two-thirds majority in parliament in the toughest contest it has faced since the end of apartheid in 1994.
A deal with prosecutors might also be possible or the ANC might replace the existing national director of public prosecution with someone who will not take Zuma's case further. "I don't think we are going to have a president with a legal case hanging over his head because I think that the ANC will make the charges against him go away before he becomes president," said Steven Friedman, Director at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, jointly run by the University of Johannesburg and Rhodes University.
Political tension has increased before the election in which rival party COPE - set up by ANC dissidents - is expected to make inroads into the ANC's majority of around 70 percent in the previous general election in 2004. The ANC's militant youth league said prosecuting Zuma while he is president would embarrass the country.
"I just want to ask those who are behind this case if they would be proud to prosecute their own president," ANC Youth League President Julius Malema said outside the court. Despite the charges, the ANC has said Zuma remains their candidate for the presidency. The party says the corruption case, which has rumbled on for years, is politically motivated and has hurt his reputation and right to a fair trial.
The ANC said it was Zuma's 38th court appearance over the past 7-1/2 years. "If they think they can stop us from installing Zuma as our president, they are daydreaming," ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said outside the court. Zuma has approached the country's highest court to try to have graft charges against him dropped.
An Appeals Court ruling, which overturned an earlier court ruling, cleared the way for prosecutors to pursue the corruption case against Zuma. A September ruling that dismissed the graft charges led to the ANC ousting former President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's longstanding rival, but also split the party which has been in power since the end of apartheid.
Senior ANC members loyal to Mbeki launched COPE, or the Congress of the People, in December. Mbeki has not given his public support to the new party, which has promised to continue policies that were widely seen as pro-business. Zuma is closer to unions and the party's left wing.