So, finally Jacob Zuma gets his wish. The former deputy president, who was fired from his position last week, will be charged with two counts of corruption, a spokesperson for the National Prosecution Authority has confirmed.

President Thabo Mbeki dismissed Zuma after a court convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik on charges of corruption and fraud for making payments to Zuma and arranging a bribe from a French arms company.

Mbeki said the conviction of Shaik "raised questions of conduct" on the part of Zuma.

Following a previous investigation into corruption allegations against Zuma in 2003, prosecutors concluded there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction against the then deputy president.

The prosecution's decision to proceed with charges is courageous but raises the question why Zuma was not in the same dock as Shaik.

It would have saved the state and the accused an awful lot of money and the country the trauma of seeing dissected in full public view the unsavoury financial affairs of a struggle hero.

Zuma was, and is, justifiably aggrieved over this failure. In a way, he was tried in absentia and in the court of public opinion.

But, following on the president's decision to axe Zuma, the state must be commended for acting swiftly on the judgment of Judge Hilary Squires which indicated that Zuma had a case to answer.

The arraignment, set down in a Durban court this week, and its outcome will most certainly have a defining impact on South Africa's political leadership in 2009.

Also, it should shut up those elements prepared to sacrifice principle for expediency out of blind loyalty to Zuma.

Either way, it will signal like nothing else the supremacy of the rule of law in South Africa and that nobody is beyond its reach.

With acknowledgement to The Star.