In a case that's been dubbed Hamlet without the prince, a trial where the accused is absent could determine if he is to rule Pretoria.
The stage is a courtroom in Durban which from today will decide if there is something rotten about Deputy President Jacob Zuma, 62. An adviser to Zuma goes on trial for corruption and fraud and, if he is convicted, the Zulu tipped as South Africa's next leader will be deemed a crook.
The most important trial since apartheid ended is a test not just for Zuma but for the young democracy, because it pits rival parts of the state and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) against each other. Victory for the deputy will keep him on course to succeed President Thabo Mbeki. Defeat will see him shamed and perhaps jailed in a subsequent trial.
Commentators say it is a defining moment in South Africa's journey to a system of accountability with clear lines between party, state and personal interests.
"The trial will set the standard for public morality: the way those in the public eye ... go about playing their roles," said Mondli Makhanya, Johannesburg Sunday Times editor.
Durban's high court will host just one defendant, Schabir Shaik, 47, who faces two counts of corruption and a third of fraud in relation to arms deals and bribes. The businessman denies the charges.
Zuma has not been charged with anything, but according to a leaked copy of Shaik's 45-page charge sheet the deputy president's name is cited on every second page in relation to 238 payments from Shaik.
Prosecutors say these were bribes to Zuma in the form of cash, bonds, loan repayments, living allowances, clothing and school and university fees for his children, in return for help obtaining government contracts. Zuma says the payments were loans.
Prosecutors say that docu-ments, computer disks and more than 100 witnesses will show that from 1995 the two men formed a partnership whereby Zuma used his political clout to benefit Shaik's company, Nkobi Holdings.
It is alleged that in 2000 the patron of the ANC's "moral regeneration" campaign solicited an annual bribe from French arms vendor Thomson-CSF/Thales.
It was part of a massive arms deal that critics say enriched ANC officials and their friends. South Africa's equivalent of the US FBI, the Scorpions, started investigating Zuma almost three years ago.
The probe sparked a political firestorm, as Zuma is popular with the trade unions and the party rank-and-file. Affable and shrewd, he is troubleshoots when the government needs to smooth difficult issues such as HIV/AIDS, spending constraints or the flashpoint province of KwaZulu-Natal. But he has opponents within the movement, including, some claim, Mbeki.
Whether too left-wing, too pop-ulist, too independent or too Zulu for the Xhosa-heavy elite, it seems clear that senior figures want to block Zuma from the top job.
Allies wonder if dirty tricks are behind the leaking of court documents which have led to a trial by media. When the Scorpions said they had a prima facie case but not enough to prosecute Zuma, his friends accused the investigator of being an apartheid-era spy, a claim rejected by a judicial commission.
An ANC member since the age of 16, Zuma was an intelligence operative for the movement's armed wing during apartheid. While dodging police he formed a bond with Shaik, another activist whose job was to smuggle money.
With little formal education, Zuma is not said to be especially numerate, and after the ANC took power he allowed Shaik to run his financial affairs. At some point, say prosecutors, that relationship turned corrupt.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not