A South Africa court ruling paves the way for the state to prosecute Jakob Zuma, the former Deputy President, on new corruption charges.

South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of the prosecution in four applications that will allow the state access to documents seized in 2005 at the homes and offices of Jacob Zuma and two of his lawyers.

Zuma was fired in 2005 as deputy leader over an arms deal in which he was supposed to receive an annual amount of USD 77,000 which the state alleges was a bribe linked to South Africa's USD 7b dollar arms refurbishment program. However, the graft charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

He is now a frontrunner in leadership elections for the governing African National Congress (ANC) next month.

This post would put him in a strong position to become South Africa's next president in 2009. Zuma is currently the ANC's deputy president.

MB/HAR