The High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Kwazula Natal province, today takes up the corruption case involving former South African President Jacob Zuma.

According to Rádio Moçambique, today will be only to evaluate the viability of August 15 as the effective date for the beginning of the trial.

But this is unlikely to happen, as the Constitutional Court, at least publicly, has not yet ruled on an appeal filed by the former South African president.

Last May, the judge in the case ordered that on August 1 it would be assessed whether or not Jacob Zuma has exhausted all possibilities of appeal in an attempt to remove prosecutor Bill Downer from the case.

At the time, the Supreme Court of Appeal's decision on the matter was pending. In the same month of May, this court rejected Jacob Zuma's claim.

Zuma's legal team appealed in mid-June to the Constitutional Court, whose position is unknown.

So everything leads us to believe that today's session will be merely formal, and a new postponement of the case is almost certain.

In fact, the Jacob Zuma Foundation has informed us that its patron will not attend the session scheduled for this Monday.

The same should happen with the French company Thales, defendant in the same case

With the year two thousand and twenty-two fast approaching its end, the possibility of the trial starting next year cannot be put aside.

This case dates back to 1999, when Zuma was vice president of South Africa and the ANC. He is accused, among others, of corruption, tax fraud and extortion in an arms purchase case.

The South African prosecutor even dropped charges against Zuma in 2009, on the eve of the South African presidential election won by the former president.

Source: RM