Johannesburg - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will not hand over documents seized during raids on Jacob Zuma's residences, his lawyer said on Monday.

Michael Hulley said the NPA had told him that it wanted to wait for the outcome of an appeal on a case regarding Zuma's former attorney, Julekha Mahomed.

He told Sapa he would now go ahead with a court application to have the documents - seized from Zuma's homes in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as from Hulley's office - returned.

The NPA met on the matter earlier in the day after Hulley made the request for the documents to be returned on Friday.

He said he would meet counsel later in the day to decide on the finer details of the application.

Unlawful

This comes after the Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday that raids by the Scorpions on the office and home of Mahomed were unlawful.

Judge Ismail Hussain said in his judgment that two search warrants for the office and home were obtained and executed unlawfully, and that attorney-client privilege was violated by the Scorpions' conduct.

The warrants were set aside and the Scorpions were ordered to return all documents, files and objects seized from her premises.

However, the NPA said on Friday it would appeal against the ruling.

The raids all took place on August 18.

President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as South Africa's deputy president in July after he was found by Durban High Court to have had a "generally corrupt" relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

Zuma was then charged on two counts of corruption.

He is to appear in the Durban magistrate's court in October.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and News24.