South Africa's ruling African National Congress on Monday accused the state of persecuting party leader Jacob Zuma by charging him with corruption and demanded that the case be dropped.

Speaking outside the High Court in the southern city of Pietermaritzburg, where hundreds of Zuma supporters demonstrated ahead of a key hearing in his case, ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte said, 'This is persecution, not prosecution.'

'We want it (the case) to be dropped,' she said, accusing the National Prosecuting Authority of undermining Zuma's rights to speedy justice by spending eight years amassing evidence against him and of denigrating him publicly before his case got to trial in the way of 'the old apartheid system.'

On Monday, Zuma will appeal to the court to set aside his prosecution for alleged corruption, fraud, racketeering and money- laundering in a state arms deal.

He will argue the state did not allow him to make representations about the charges against him before reversing a 2003 decision not to indict him.

'Zuma, my president,' supporters, who had been bussed into Pietermaritzburg from around the country for the hearing, sang as they danced through the surrounding streets waving placards with slogans such as 'Justice delayed is justice denied' and 'You touch the ANC president you touch Rustenburg (a city in North-West province).'

'We know he is innocent,' said Sbuonelo Mbatha, 27, a self-employed man from Pietermaritzburg, who spent the winter night under the stars in the square adjacent the courthouse with other Zuma supporters.

'Zuma is going to be president, even if he's in orange clothes (prison uniform),' Mbatha added.

The case is the latest in a string of court actions taken by the Zulu politician to avoid a fresh trial for corruption over South Africa's multibillion-dollar arms build-up in the late 1990s.

The first case against him was thrown out of the same Pietermaritzburg court in 2006 over delays by the prosecution in presenting evidence.

The National Prosecuting Authority brought the new charges against Zuma in December 2007, a few days after he romped to victory over President Thabo Mbeki in an ANC leadership race.

Zuma's supporters in the ANC and the allied trade union movement and Communist Party claim that the new case is a politically motivated attempt to prevent Zuma from becoming president after elections in 2009.

The ANC has named Zuma as the party's candidate to succeed Mbeki when his two terms as president expire at next year's general elections, which the party is expected to win.

'Even if he is guilty they're (the government) just using this (case against Zuma) to cover their tracks,' said Nokuthula Mjilo, a 31-year-old office employee wearing a cloth bearing the image of Zuma's face over her clothes, referring to allegations that other senior leaders were also on the take from arms manufacturers.

The charges against Zuma relate mainly to his relationship with his crooked former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for corruption and fraud, including soliciting a bribe from French arms manufacturer Thint on Zuma's behalf.

Although the ANC vowed to 'shut down' Pietermaritzburg for the two days of the trial, people were going about their work as normal Monday and buses were running in spite of union calls for a pro-Zuma strike.

A defeat in Pietermaritzburg would not mean Zuma will necessarily end up in the dock. His lawyer has already said he will appeal a ruling against him to the Constitutional Court.

Some have also speculated that the ANC might be tempted to push for a change in the constitution to give Zuma immunity from prosecution if he still faces charges after, as seems likely, he becomes president.

Duarte merely said, 'The ANC has never discussed changing the constitution.'