Jacob Zuma, after stepping down as President of South Africa when his party the African National Congress, (ANC) had passed a vote of no confidence against him has been hit by 16 charges of prosecution which includes corruption and money laundering against the state.

The Chief Prosecutor, Shaun Abrahams has indicated that the former President who has be succeeded by his Vice Cyril Ramaphosa is to be tried for the charges he has denied at a Trial Court indicating that it will be the appropriate court.

Mr Abrahams indicated that, he is of the believe that there is “reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution”.

Mr Zuma who is currently 75 years is facing among his charges a 30 billion rand ($2.5bn; £1.7bn) government arms deal in the late 1990s, before he became president.

He is also facing charges for racketeering and two charges of corruption, one charge of money laundering and 12 charges of fraud.

Mr Zuma who is the former Chief of the ANC has indicated that the charges are “irrational behaviour” and media leaks on the part of prosecutors as stated by Mr Abrahams who is also the head of the National Prosecuting Authority.

Mr Zuma who has served South Africa as the President has has denied charges labelled against him as receiving bribes from bidders in order to grant them deals.

In 2006, Jacob Zuma went on trial for his financial Adviser  Schabir Shaik who was jailed a year earier to which was dismissed on the grounds that, the prosecution were not ready to go over a case that has been closed for a year.

In 2016 Mr Zuma was stated that, Mr Zuma, the then President had acted contrary to the provisions in the constitution to pay back monies he had borrowed to refurnish his private home.

An anti-corruption body found he had spent $23m (£15m) on refurbishments including a swimming pool and an amphitheatre. He has since repaid some of the money.

However, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) controversially dropped the charges in 2009, shortly before he won the presidency a case in which political opponents had campaigned against.

The country's High Court pursued the case again in 2016 and the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in favour of the Prosecution.

In the same year, there were charges against Mr Zuma in which a report was released by the country's anti-corruption watchdog claimed that Gupta family, a wealthy Indian-born South African family, had taken advantage of their ties with him to exploit contracts in their favour, charges both the family and Mr Zuma debunked.

Ghanaguardian.com