(Bloomberg) -- Former South African President Jacob Zuma was briefly back in court on Tuesday as the start of his trial on graft, racketeering and money laundering charges inched closer, a decade after prosecutors tried to shelve the case amid allegations of political interference.
High Court Judge Sharmaine Bolton delayed the trial in the eastern town of Pietermaritzburg until Feb. 4 to give him time to challenge a ruling last week in the same court that the case should go ahead. The Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed two years ago that a decision in 2009 not to pursue the charges was irrational.
“Mr Zuma seeks to exercise the full extent of his constitutional rights, which includes to appeal an unfavorable decision,” his lawyer Thabani Masuku told the court.
The case is a boon for Zuma’s successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is under pressure to follow through on a pledge to tackle corruption, as was the sparsity of supporters for the former leader inside and outside the court. Zuma has attracted thousands of backers to previous court appearances and the small crowd on Tuesday may reflect his dwindling influence.
Prosecutors spent eight years investigating allegations that Zuma, 77, took 4.07 million ($275,000) in bribes from arms dealers in the 1990s. They abandoned the case months before he became president in 2009, saying taped phone calls indicated that the chief investigator may have used the case to frustrate Zuma’s efforts to win control of the ruling African National Congress.
The Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, successfully challenged the decision to drop the charges.
The ANC forced Zuma to step down under threat of impeachment in February last year to stem a loss of support after a string of scandals during his nine-year tenure and replaced him with Ramaphosa, who had won the party leadership two months earlier. Zuma denies wrongdoing and says the allegations against him are part of a political conspiracy.