Former South African president Jacob Zuma told thousands of supporters outside court in Durban on Friday that his opponents were telling lies and he would be proven innocent in a corruption case against him.
Speaking in Zulu in his home province, Zuma said that the judiciary and politicians believed that he did not have rights.
“The truth will come out. What have I done?” Zuma told the cheering crowd.
“I am innocent until proven guilty.”
The Durban High Court adjourned until June 8 the case of corruption in a 2.5 billion arms deal dollars, filed against Zuma.
Zuma’s legal team and lawyers for the state agreed to the postponement to give both sides time to prepare their submissions relating to charges against Zuma including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
The 75-year-old, whose scandal-plagued nine years in office were marked by economic stagnation and credit downgrades, faces 16 charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
Zuma denies any wrongdoing and is challenging the decision to prosecute the case, a dramatic development on a continent where political leaders are rarely held to account for their actions before the law.
Wearing a dark suit, a smiling Zuma waved to crowds of supporters and reporters as he climbed the steps of the High Court in Durban shortly before 0700 GMT.
Zuma, who was forced to resign by the ANC last month, was at the center of a 1990s deal to buy billions of dollars of European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s post-apartheid armed forces.
The deal was mired in scandal and controversy from the start, with many inside and outside the ANC questioning the spending given the massive social issues, from health to education, Nelson Mandela’s party had to address after coming to power in 1994.
Fallout has cast a shadow over South African politics ever since.
Zuma was deputy president at the time. Schabir Shaikh, his former financial adviser, was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to solicit bribes for Zuma from a subsidiary of French arms company Thales.
The company is facing charges in the same case.
Charges against Zuma were filed but then set aside by the National Prosecuting Authority shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.
The charges were re-instated in 2016.
Since his election nine years ago, his opponents have fought a lengthy legal battle to have the charges reinstated.
Zuma countered with his own legal challenges.
