The spectre of wrongdoing has tainted the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for much of the country's 15-year democracy -- at least since an arms scandal erupted a decade ago.

It is now is set to haunt any future Zuma government long after general elections on April 22, when he is widely tipped to become president, they said.

South Africa's prosecutions chief Mokotedi Mpshe said Monday an eight-year investigation of fraud, racketeering, embezzlement and money laundering against Zuma was being dropped due to abuses of the legal process by top officials.

"The legal case has been compromised, that doesn't prove Jacob Zuma is innocent," said political analyst Adam Habib of the Human Sciences Research Council.

"The image of South Africa as a corrupt society remains," he added.

The National Prosecuting Authority had "put everything on the table" in their openness about the decision to drop the charges, said Habib. But the damage to South Africa's democratic institutions was done, he warned.

"The institutions of justice have been compromised. There isn't a question about that, and unless we charge the people implicated we will never get to the bottom of it."

Mpshe read out taped conversations in which his predecessor Bulelani Ngcuka and the former head of the now defunct Scorpions crime-fighting unit Leonard McCarthy, colluded to time the charges against Zuma for political gain.

"It shows there was an elite battle in the ANC and they used the state as a playing ground," said Habib.

"This was outrageous abuse of power by people in the ruling party and they should apologise to the nation for that," he added.

McCarthy is now the head of the World Bank's anti-corruption department.

The wire-tapped conversations imply a conspiracy to keep Zuma out of power, as he fought a fiercely contested battle with former president Thabo Mbeki for the leadership of the ANC -- a battle he eventually won.

But now charges that Zuma used his own political influence to protect players in the arms deal investigation will never be tested.

The 30-billion-rand (3.3-billion-dollar / 2.4-billion-euro) procurement of submarines, helicopters and patrol corvettes in 1999 was slammed by critics.

They said South Africa faced no military threat and would be better focusing on the legacy of poverty left by the apartheid regime.

Allegations of corruption in the deal have suggested an intricate web of collusion in South African politics, with Zuma's graft trial leading directly to Mbeki being forced out of office last year.

Dirk Kotze, a political analyst with the University of South Africa, said the prosecutors' decision had failed to resolve the real issues.

"It is going to create a Zuma presidency which is a type of lame-duck presidency. He will have very little authority with relation to matters like corruption. It does not address at all the merits of the case."

While the uncertainty had been lifted over how government would function with its president in and out of court, this was an example of "the end not justifying the means", Kotze told AFP.

Habib took a similar view.

"Zuma has been saved but the country has been compromised," he said.

Habib called on Zuma to "take the nation into his confidence" and come clean about the graft charges.

Bennitto Motitsoe of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa called for a commission of enquiry on the arms deal, similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established after apartheid.

"On seeking to deal with the cloud, we must return to a sober discussion about the arms deal and invite those suspected to come forward," he said. - AFP
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