Zuma Turns To S.Africa`s Top Court In Graft Case

A South African high court is expected on Wednesday to set a date for Zuma`s trial.

South Africa's ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma has approached the country's highest court to try to have graft charges against him dropped, a local radio station reported said Tuesday.

Political tension has increased before an election due in April, when the ANC faces its most serious contest since apartheid ended in 1994. Zuma's party is expected to win despite the revived corruption case, opening the way for him to become state president.

"ANC president Jacob Zuma's lawyers have now filed a full set of papers with the Constitutional Court required for his application for leave to appeal," Talk Radio 702 said.

An Appeals Court ruling, which overturned an earlier court ruling, has opened the way for prosecutors to pursue the corruption case against Zuma.

Zuma's lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

A South African high court is expected on Wednesday to set a date for Zuma's trial. ANC officials and Zuma supporters will gather at the court house, the party said in a statement.

On Monday, Zuma's African National Congress condemned an attack on its supporters at the weekend as an act of "desperation and barbarism" and party officials blamed activists from the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party.

Violence erupted on Sunday after the ANC held a rally in northern Zululand, a key electoral area for the party and the opposition IFP. ANC buses were stoned and a car carrying MP Prince Zeblon Zulu and two women was shot at, police said.

A September ruling that dismissed the graft charges led to the ANC ousting former President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's longstanding rival, but also split the party which has been in power since the end of apartheid.

Mbeki supporters have since formed a dissident party, COPE, which poses the first real challenge to the ANC in 15 years.