JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — A South African court Wednesday cleared the way for prosecutors to appeal a verdict that quashed corruption charges against ruling party chief Jacob Zuma, unleashing a wave of political turmoil.
The decision leaves a legal cloud hanging over Zuma as he fights off threats of a breakaway to the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of elections next year, when he is widely expected to become president.
Judge Chris Nicholson granted an application by prosecutors for permission to appeal his September 12 ruling when he effectively tossed out charges against Zuma and led to former president Thabo Mbeki's ouster.
Nicholson's verdict last month hinted that Mbeki had meddled in the case against Zuma, a finding that prompted the ANC to force Mbeki to resign just months before the end of his term.
The decision to allow the appeal came as a group of ANC dissidents announced a rally in a shantytown near Johannesburg on Thursday, in what will be the group's first test of public opinion in South Africa's richest and most populous province of Gauteng.
The group hope to draw 4,000 people in an event organised by former defence minister and one-time ANC chairman Mosiuoa Lekota and several of his allies, who now face expulsion from the party.
Thursday's rally is one of a series leading up to a national convention set for November 2, when Lekota and his partners say they will lay the groundwork for a new party that could be launched in December.
The ANC has stepped up threats to punish members who support the splinter after brushing off initial reports of the breakaway following Mbeki's axing.
On Wednesday, it again warned of disciplinary action against members who threw their weight behind the breakaway, while saying that it would not interfere with the formation of a new party.
The ANC also reaffirmed its support for Zuma in the appeals process, saying the populist leader who has been dogged by corruption allegations for years was a victim of "vindictive prosecution."
The move to appeal "signals yet another attempt to resurrect the trial and block the ANC president from running and becoming head of state," it said.
Zuma faced charges ranging from money-laundering to racketeering in a long-running corruption investigation dating back to 2001, which saw the accusations dropped then revived.
The main allegation was that he received bribes for protecting French arms company Thint in an investigation into a controversial weapons deal.
The decision to toss out the charges was not based on findings of Zuma's guilt or innocence, but on the technicality that he was denied his right to make representations to prosecutors before being recharged.
Mbeki's axing laid bare seismic divisions in the ANC in what has been the biggest challenge to the party since it came to power in 1994 with the end of the whites-only apartheid regime.
The former president has already filed his own separate appeal in the country's Constitutional Court against Nicholson's ruling, which he claims cost him his job.
The dissidents are loyalists of Mbeki, who has waged a long-running power struggle with Zuma. Mbeki himself has not made any public comment on the possible breakaway.
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