DURBAN: ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma claims the state's investigation into possible corruption charges against him is "engineered" to tarnish his name ahead of the party's elections in December.

But the state accuses Zuma of using every conceivable technical obstacle to delay and prevent prosecution.

It also says it has no interest in Zuma's political ambitions and the timing of a decision on whether to recharge him will "rest solely on the status of the investigation and removal of legal impediments".

In affidavits before high courts in Pretoria and Durban, in which Zuma is fighting attempts to get documents from England and Mauritius to be used against him in a possible trial, he accuses the state of portraying him as a "criminal".

The state has secured from Durban High Court Justice Philip Levinsohn a "letter of request" to the Mauritian authorities for 12 original documents for its "further investigation" against Zuma and French arms company Thint.

Zuma and Thint will appeal Judge Levinsohn's ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal on September 21

The national Director of Public Prosecutions will make another application in the Durban High Court for an execution order today, allowing the legal process in Mauritius to continue pending the appeal.

Zuma is raising the "social and personal consequences" as one of the grounds for his objection.

In documents filed with the court, Zuma's advocate, Kemp J Kemp, says he has been under investigation for seven and the state has still not decided to prosecute him.

"This has created a semi-permanent pall of suspicion over his head," he argues. "And the execution of the order pending appeal which would be sent to an overseas government authority would confirm his status as some kind of permanent suspect."

Kemp says the letter makes no mention that the issue of a political motive is central to Zuma's resistance to the manner of the investigation.

Zuma raised similar points in his affidavit before the Pretoria High Court, in which he sought permission to intervene in another application by the state for a letter of request to the UK for details relating to a payment which would allegedly shed light on how R500 000 was paid by the arms company to Zuma.

In that court document, Zuma says he is regarded as a "potential candidate for the presidency of the ANC" and that the engineering of a situation where he is a "criminal/ accused/suspect" during the crucial latter part of this year has greatly aided the cause of those politically opposed to him.

In reply in the Durban matter, Scorpions prosecutor advocate Anton Steynberg said Zuma's situation was a direct result of Zuma's own successful application before Judge Herbert Msimang in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have the criminal case struck from the roll.

Steynberg labelled Zuma's political conspiracy allegations as the "proverbial red herring".

With acknowledgements to Tania Broughton and Cape Times.