Former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, will appear before the High Court of Durban on Friday to defend corruption charges leveled against him dating back to a fraught USD 2.5 bn arms deal in the mid-1990s.

Not less than 2,000 supporters taking side of the former president are also expected to see the proceedings and to demonstrate against the charges leveled at him.

The people taking side of Zuma put forth the argument that the courts are compromised and biased against him.

Zuma at the age of 75 faces at least corruption charges against him along with the charges of racketeering and fraud which includes taking bribes from a French arms manufacturer in a set of accusations that have long been with him during his political career.

The manufacturer of arms from France will also be held with corruption charges. The representatives of the French company are expected to appear in court alongside Zuma.

The expected court appearance of Zuma had been hailed by South Africa civil society and trade unions which includes the powerful National Union of Metal Workers (NUMSA).

“As Numsa, we welcome the fact that he will be in court. We called for corruption charges to be ventilated in court a long time ago. So we look forward,” Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said.

In a similar way, former ANC MP and arms-deal activist Andrew Feinstein told news agencies that there was good amount of evidence against Zuma and that “should find himself in jail”.

Zuma had to resign in February as president of the South African Nation after there was increasing pressure on him to step down amid long-standing corruption allegations.

Despite that, Zuma still has strong support among the South African masses with the reports of thousands to attend a pro-Zuma march on Friday.

And on the day of facing charges, members of the Black First Land First (BLF) party are expected to hold a vigil for Zuma outside the court.

BLF has always said that Zuma has been a victim of the pressure for trying to transform the economy and improve the lives of the poor.

“He lied to workers. He pretended to care about the working class. Zuma and the ANC will go down in history as having sold out the working class,” Hlubi-Majola said.

The decision by ANC to make the way clear for Zuma is contrary to its previous public displays of support and defense of Zuma during the 2006 rape trial and previous attempts to charge him for corruption.

Zuma was made president in 2009 soon after the charges were first dropped. But the Civil society and opposition parties have worked tirelessly to have the charges reinstated.

He has always maintained that he has done nothing wrong.

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