The present national director of public prosecutions, a former minister of justice, the former national director of public prosecutions, and the Scorpions' boss have all lambasted former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

The four men - Vusi Pikoli, Penuel Maduna, Bulelani Ngcuka and Leonard McCarthy - were replying by affidavit in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to the application made by Zuma and by Thint, the French arms manufacturer, that the charges against them - corruption and fraud against Zuma, corruption against Thint - be struck off the roll.

Zuma and Thint brought their applications on July 31 in response to a state application for a postponement of the trial. Justice Herbert Msimang ordered, however, that affidavits in support of the state response to Zuma and Thint be entered into the court file by yesterday and that the state respond on September 5 to the Zuma and Thint applications.

Pikoli said he unequivocally rejected Zuma's claims that the charges against Zuma had been fuelled by a political conspiracy; that Pikoli had in some way colluded with the president about charging Zuma; and that Zuma was dismissed from the deputy presidency because of the charges brought against him by Pikoli.

Pikoli said he had decided to charge Zuma following the findings in the trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik that Shaik and Zuma had had "a generally corrupt relationship".

Among the reasons, Pikoli said, for his decision to charge Zuma was that he was aware that the finding in the Shaik trial "might affect the perception of foreign governments (regarding) South Africa and could even impact on the economy". Pikoli said he was also aware that Zuma had made repeated calls to have "his day in court", and he therefore thought it fair to oblige him in this regard.

Pikoli said he told the president that he had decided to charge Zuma on June 20 last year because he felt it was his duty to do so, given that Zuma had been deputy president (until June 14).

He said he had had no discussions whatsoever with the president about Zuma during a trip to Chile from June 6-10.

Pikoli said that Zuma had "effectively branded President Thabo Mbeki a liar". He said that by accusing Mbeki of having fired him because Pikoli wanted to prosecute him, and not because of the Shaik trial finding, Zuma was saying that Mbeki had lied to the nation when he dismissed Zuma.

"I challenge Zuma to pertinently state that the president lied to parliament and to spell out whether or not he asserts that the president is also a party to the alleged political conspiracy against him".

Maduna said that he wanted to deal firstly with "a theme that resonates throughout (Zuma's) affidavit", that he (Zuma) had been targeted to destroy his reputation and "political role-playing ability".

Maduna said this was not true. He said Zuma had offered no facts to bolster his allegation but had relied instead on "rumours, press reports, speculation and innuendo". Maduna said that initially Zuma had blamed him (Maduna) and Ngcuka for being responsible for a plot against him (Zuma), but later, during his rape trial, blamed Ngcuka and Ronnie Kasrils.

Regarding Thint, and the claims by its managing director, Pierre Moynot, that he believed that following a meeting with Maduna and Ngcuka in April 2004, Thint would not be prosecuted in connection with the arms deal, Maduna said that the approach for a meeting had come from Thint. He also said he was amazed that Thint had chosen to detail confidential and privileged discussions in its affidavit.

Maduna said he, too, had held confidential discussions with Thint's counsel, Kessie Naidu, about the encrypted fax and its author, Alain Thetard.

"The contents of the discussion … were to be strictly confidential and I have to date respected this confidentiality. I am advised [however] that I would be within my rights to divulge the contents of this conversation in the light of the selective disclosure [by Thint]. [But] I have decided not to descend to that level."

Maduna said that in his view Thetard's second statement about the encrypted fax, that it was only Thetard's "loose" thoughts about separate issues, had been a "cynical attempt to sabotage the state's case". If the state had known that this was what Thetard was going to dish up, it would never have agreed to drop charges in the Shaik trial.

Ngcuka said that Zuma's claim that he is the victim of a political conspiracy was inaccurate and merely a ploy "to deflect [people] from the seriousness of the charges which '[Zuma] is facing".

With acknowledgment to Jeremy Gordin and Cape Times.