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Pietermaritzburg: A South African judge on Tuesday said he would decide next month on ruling party leader Jacob Zuma's bid to have a corruption case against him dismissed.
The case is the biggest obstacle to Zuma succeeding President Thabo Mbeki after general elections next year, almost certain to be won by the ANC, but any delay increases the chance that he could already be in office before any trial starts.
"The court is going to reserve judgment in the main application. The judgment will be given on the 12th of September," judge Chris Nicholson said.
Analysts see delay
Nicholson set a December 8 start date for Zuma's corruption trial in the event that he fails to have the charges dismissed.
But analysts said it was possible that a trial might be delayed for months, even years, as he would be able to turn to the appeals court and then South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court.
Zuma denies the charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering, but says he will step down if convicted. The ANC wants all charges to be dropped.
After yesterday's proceedings, Zuma told supporters outside the court in his powerbase KwaZulu-Natal province:
"If the case goes to trial, it is going to be long because I will call witnesses. Maybe the truth will come out when the case has started."
A long trial could overlap with the general election, risking increased political instability in Africa's biggest economy.
"It's unimaginable that Zuma's trial will have concluded by election day in 2009. The last appeal might well stretch even beyond a one-term Zuma presidency, which would end in 2014," said political scientist Keith Gottschalk of the University of the Western Cape.
The ANC-dominated parliament may also move to prevent Zuma being prosecuted when he is president, said Aubrey Matshiqi, a political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies. "It is possible that we will be faced with a situation where our head of state is facing criminal charges, but ... we cannot rule out the possibility that the ANC majority will be used to pass legislation according to which a sitting head of state cannot be prosecuted."
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