Zuma can be charged over graft charges
A South African court yesterday threw out President Jacob Zuma's attempt to appeal against a ruling that he should face almost 800 corruption charges, piling pressure on the embattled leader.
Zuma had tried to overturn a court order in April that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should reinstate the charges that were dropped in 2009 shortly before he came to power.
The charges relate to alleged corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering over a multi-billion dollar arms deal.
"We seriously considered whether the appeal would have reasonable prospects of success and came to the conclusion that there are no merits in the arguments," Judge Aubrey Ledwaba told the High Court in Pretoria.
"The applications for leave to appeal... are dismissed." In 2009, state prosecutors justified dropping the 783 charges by saying that tapped phone calls between officials in then-president Thabo Mbeki's administration showed undue interference in the case.
The move cleared the way for Zuma, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) party, to be elected as South Africa's president just weeks later.
The tapped phone recordings, which became known as the "spy tapes", were kept secret until they were released in 2014 after a legal battle fought by the main opposition party.
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