South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma has suffered another setback in his attempts to remove the lead prosecutor from his arms deal corruption trial.

This came up as a top judge dismissed his latest petition in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

Mr Zuma, ousted in 2018 after nine years in power, accuses the prosecutor of bias against him.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges including corruption, money laundering and racketeering in the long-running case over the two billion dollars arms deal in the 1990s.

Mr Zuma had asked the SCA’s president, Justice Mandisa Maya, to reconsider an earlier ruling by two SCA judges and allow him to appeal a High Court decision not to take the lead prosecutor off the case.

However, the judiciary said in a statement on Thursday that Mr Maya had “issued an order disposing of the application”.

The spokesman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Zuma’s corruption trial has been repeatedly delayed. This month proceedings were adjourned until a holding date in August to give the SCA president time to make her decision. 

(Reuters/NAN)