South Africa's ruling ANC said today its leader Jacob Zuma had nothing to do with a senior judge accused of trying to influence members of the Constitutional Court in legal cases involving him.
Media reported yesterday that the Constitutional Court said Cape High Court Judge John Hlophe had approached several members of its bench to influence them in legal cases involving Mr Zuma.
"The issue has nothing to do with Mr Zuma," ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte told Reuters.
Mr Zuma faces fraud, bribery, money-laundering and other charges connected to his alleged role in an arms deal.
Mr Zuma, who defeated President Thabo Mbeki for the ANC leadership last December, is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from French arms manufacturer Thint. He has denied the charges and said he will step down from his position if convicted.
Helen Zille, leader of the main opposition party the Democratic Alliance, said in a statement yesterday that Judge Hlophe should be dismissed if he was found to have abused his power. She said her party wanted to know whether Mr Hlophe had acted at the behest of Mr Zuma or his allies.
"We are very startled by the comments of Zille because the statement issued by the judges totally indicates that non of the litigants knew (this)," Ms Duarte said.
"We are really not happy about Zille's comments about Mr Zuma and are waiting for the judicial commission's inquiry, which is the right thing to do."
Mr Zuma's defence team has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court to overturn a lower court ruling allowing prosecutors to use documents seized in raids on properties belonging to the ANC chief and one of his lawyers.
They argue that the search warrants used were illegal.
Earlier this month a defence lawyer said Zuma's corruption case would not begin on August 4th as previously scheduled, saying there were other matters that had to be dealt with first.