JOHANNESBURG: Lawyers for Jacob Zuma have until midnight to file papers outlining why nearly 800 corruption charges shelved before he became South African president eight years ago but recently reinstated by the courts should not be brought against him.
The revival of the charges could increase pressure on Zuma to step down before his term ends in 2019 and diminish his influence over who succeeds him when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chooses a new leader in December.
The 75-year-old president has faced and denied numerous other corruption allegations since taking office in 2009.
The 783 charges, which relate to a 30 billion rand ($2.2 billion) government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s, were filed but then dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) shortly before he ran for the presidency.
South Africa’s High Court reinstated the charges last year and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in October, rejecting an appeal by Zuma and describing the NPA’s decision to set aside the charges as “irrational.”
The NPA said then that Zuma had until Nov. 30 to make submissions before it decided whether to pursue the charges.
Spokesmen for the NPA and Zuma were not available for comment on Thursday.
Last month’s Supreme Court ruling lifted the rand currency against the dollar as investors bet that Zuma’s removal may be inching closer.
The president is unpopular with many investors after sacking respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in March, a move that hit South African financial assets and helped tip the country’s credit ratings into “junk” territory.
Infighting within the ruling ANC ahead of next month’s conference to elect a successor to Zuma as party chief has also sapped confidence among the investors upon whom South Africa relies to finance its hefty budget and current account deficits.
One of South Africa’s leading universities, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, said on Thursday that it had appointed Gordhan as a visiting professor.
He will join other ANC heavyweights who have ended up at the Wits after being sidelined by Zuma, among them another respected and ousted finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, and former Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.
Widely seen as a competent and honest technocrat, Gordhan has become an unlikely poster boy for public anger at the president, whose administration has been marred by missteps and allegations of corruption. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.
Deadline looms for South Africa’s Zuma over revived graft charges
Deadline looms for South Africa’s Zuma over revived graft charges
Venezuela denounces ‘extremely serious military aggression’ by US
- The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela
CARACAS: Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 am (0600 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist reported.
The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela.
Sounds of explosions were still being heard around 2:15 am, although their exact location was unclear.
Trump on Monday said the United States hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
The Republican leader would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, noting only that it was “along the shore.”
The attack would be the first known land strike on Venezuelan soil.
President Nicolas Maduro has neither confirmed nor denied Monday’s strike, but said Thursday he was open to cooperation with Washington after weeks of US military pressure.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel and says it is cracking down on trafficking, but the leftist leader denies any involvement in the narcotics trade, saying Washington is seeking to overthrow him because Venezuela has the largest known reserves of oil on Earth.
Washington has ramped up pressure on Caracas by informally closing Venezuela’s airspace, imposing more sanctions and ordering the seizure of tankers loaded with Venezuelan oil.
For weeks Trump has threatened ground strikes on drug cartels in the region, saying they would start “soon,” with Monday being the first apparent example.
US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers.
The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, however, prompting debate about the legality of these operations.
The deadly maritime campaign has killed at least 107 people in at least 30 strikes, according to information released by the US military.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday declared a state of an emergency over what his goverment called an “extremely serious military aggression” by the United States on the capital Caracas.
Multiple explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard around the city, an AFP journalist reported.
“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” Maduro’s government said.
