* Zuma
South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma would soon face trial for corruption as the Country’s national prosecutors prepare to reinstate corruption charges against him.

  In an announcement Friday, South Africa’s chief prosecutor, Shaun Abrahams raises hopes of  “reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution”  against Zuma a case related to a multibillion-dollar arms deal in the late 1990s.

  Zuma, forced to resign February as South African President  by the African National Congress, ANC, was the leader of the party and the nation’s deputy president when the arms deal was finalized in 1999.

 Though he  was originally indicted in 2007 on 18 charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering, including accepting bribes from a military contractor, subsequently, he used legal maneurvers and the power of the Presidency when he assumed office to avoid prosecution.

 He was forced to resign then as Vice-President by then President Thabo Mbeki,, even as he maintained his innocence. The case precipitated a power struggle between the duo.

 Observers believe Zuma’s long-running corruption case  tarnished the image of South Africa’s governing African National Congress and laid the seeds of a culture of graft that has flourished in recent years.

 After the chief prosecutor dropped the charges against him in 2009, Zuma  resurrected his presidential ambition, successfully emerging as President.

 According to Pierre de Vos, a constitutional scholar at the University of Cape Town,  the corruption case against  Zuma could yet drag on for years. He added that the former president could still mount legal challenges to the chief prosecutor’s decision, including eventually going to the Constitutional Court.

 “It’s been the former president’s strategy to use every legal loophole to actually avoid having his case being heard in court,” Mr. de Vos said. “If he has the money for lawyers, he could stay out of court forever.”