SOUTH Africa’s scandal-tainted former president Jacob Zuma and French arms dealer Thales, accused of graft in a case going back more than two decades, will go on trial in May, the High Court ruled Tuesday.
Zuma is facing 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering relating to the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment.
He allegedly took bribes of four million rand ($270,000 or 224,000 euros) over a $3.4-billion arms deal with French aerospace and defence giant Thales in 1999, when he was deputy president.
Zuma was not present for the announcement.
The case was postponed last December, when Thales contested the racketeering charges linked to the arms deal.
But a court dismissed the challenge on January 22, a decision that Thales said it would not contest.
Both the state prosecution and defence attorneys had asked the pre-trial court for extra time.
They cited among other things
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