South Africa’s Zuma suffers new setback in corruption trial

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma has suffered another setback in his attempts to remove the lead prosecutor from his arms deal corruption trial, as a top judge dismissed his latest petition in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

Zuma, ousted in 2018 after nine years in power, accuses the prosecutor of bias against him.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges including corruption, money laundering and racketeering in the long-running case over the $2 billion arms deal in the 1990s.

Zuma had asked the SCA’s president, Justice Mandisa Maya, to reconsider an earlier ruling by two SCA judges and allow him to appeal a High Court decision not to take the lead prosecutor off the case.

But the judiciary said in a statement on Thursday that Maya had “issued an order disposing of the application”.

The spokesman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zuma’s corruption trial has been repeatedly delayed. This month proceedings were adjourned until a holding date in August to give the SCA president time to make her decision.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; editing by Bernard Orr)