Security was tight outside the Durban High Court on Friday, ahead of former South African president Jacob Zuma's appearance on corruption charges.
The court was closed to the public from around 6 am, and Zuma's security detail was inspecting the premises. The court is closed to all other cases on Friday morning except Zuma's and will only reopen again and resume normal functioning after 11 am.
Police sniffer dogs had their first sweep of the court at around 6.30am and would have periodic sweeps throughout the day.
Zuma is expected to appear to answer to 16 charges that stem from the multi-billion rand arms deal the country negotiated in the late 1990s, along with representatives from French arms manufacturer Thales.
It is common knowledge that Zuma allegedly received 783 illicit payments, channelled through his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik, who was convicted of fraud for his role in the affair but served only a fraction of his 15-year sentence before he was freed on medical parole.
The charges against Zuma were withdrawn in April 2009, easing his path to power but he spent the next nine years fighting and ultimately losing a long battle with the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, to have the decision to drop the case reviewed.
In mid-March, National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams announced that there was a reasonable prospect of conviction and said Zuma would be prosecuted for one count of racketeering, two counts of corruption, one count of money laundering and 12 counts of fraud.
The State has a list of 207 witnesses, though prosecutors are not expected to call all of them to the stand. The list includes former parliamentarians Andrew Feinstein, who left the country after doggedly trying to expose corruption in the arms deal, and Gavin Woods, the former chairman of the watchdog Standing Committee on Public Accounts, who Zuma tried to dissuade from further probing the affair.
- African News Agency (ANA)
