The full bench of the court yesterday found Zuma should face the 783 charges of corruption. In September 2008, in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed criminal charges against Zuma, citing a political conspiracy to influence the case by former president Thabo Mbeki and others.

Nicholson's decision was taken to the Supreme Court of Appeal and overturned. Zuma subsequently appealed this in the Constitutional Court, setting in motion a direct approach to the NPA to make written and oral representations on why the case should be dropped.

On April 6 2009 Mpshe said recordings of telephone conversations between then-Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka showed political interference in the decision to charge Zuma. The next day the charges against Zuma were withdrawn in the High Court in Durban.

Meanwhile, former Wits law professor James Grant says that the NPA can now also decide not to pursue the case. However, the NPA will have to prove that the decision it is making is a rational one.

-news24.com