Johannesburg - A South African court Friday smoothed the path to president for ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma after finding the corruption charges that have been hanging over him invalid. Judge Chris Nicholson in the Pietermaritzburg High Court agreed with Zuma that prosecutors did not follow proper procedure last december in charging him with corruption, fraud and racketeering, and money laundering, and set aside the charges.
The judgement elicited whoops of delight from members of the ANC national executive committee, dozens of whom had packed the courtroom to hear Nicholson read the judgement over nearly two hours.
A smiling Zuma, clad in a grey suit, hugged and shook hands with colleagues to rumblings of Umshini Wam (Bring me my Machine Gun) - the former guerrilla leader's trademark song.
Outside the court, thousands of his supporters who had been bussed in from around the country to the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province for the hearing cheered and waited excitedly to see their man.
The ruling is a coup for Zuma, who is anxious to avoid a trial before or after elections in April next year, at which he is tipped to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president.
The National Prosecuting Authority could bring new charges against him but is deemed unlikely to do so given that Zuma would likely be president before a new case came to trial.
The charges against Zuma stemmed from his relationship with fraudster, Schabir Shaik, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2005 for corruption in a state arms deal. Shaik had been found guilty, among other things, of soliciting a bribe from a French arms manufacturer on Zuma's behalf.
Zuma was first charged with corruption in 2005 but the case was thrown out of the same Pietermaritzburg court over delays by the prosecution in presenting evidence.
Despite the ruling, Mbeki sacked him as state deputy president - a decision that gave Zuma the victim image that would prove valuable later in currying support among the country's poor.
Prosecutors brought new expanded charges in December 2007, days after Zuma romped to victory in Mbeki in an ANC leadership race.
The timing of the indictment sparked allegations in the ANC that Zuma was being "persecuted, not prosecuted" in an attempt by his detractors, including Mbeki, to prevent him becoming president.
In his application to the Pietermaritzburg court Zuma had argued that prosecutors had contravened his fundamental rights by not giving him the opportunity to make representations in the case before indicting him.
In advance of the ruling the ANC and its partners in the allied trade union movement and Commmunist Party had been calling for the case to be thrown out, some even warning darkly of violence if it went ahead.
