Jacob Zuma has challenged the state to positively state whether a decision has been made to prosecute him on corruption charges and, if not, when it will be made.

"I am entitled to know this," he said in papers filed with the Durban High Court yesterday.

Zuma - whose case was struck from the roll of the Pietermaritzburg High Court last year after Judge Herbert Msimang refused to grant the state an adjournment - indicated that should he be recharged, he intended to apply for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Zuma and his former co-accused, French arms company Thint, are both opposing an application by the state - under the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act - for a letter of request to the Mauritian attorney-general for what is considered crucial original documents it alleges it needs for further investigation.

When the application was brought in judge's chambers last year, it was seen as a strong indication that the state would reinstitute charges.

Zuma now says the state is playing "musical chairs" and accuses it of adopting a "win at all costs" attitude towards prosecuting him and of not being objective.

He says this was borne out by the fact that the prosecution had unlawfully taken and used copies of documents seized in October 2001 from Mauritian offices of Thint and had then "triumphantly flourished the copies" back in South Africa.

The documents include the diary of Alain Thetard, Thint's former local chief executive, which allegedly notes a meeting between him, Zuma and Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, in March 2000.

The state alleges that it was at this meeting that the bribe by Thint to Zuma was brokered. The documents are being held under court injunction.

In the papers lodged yesterday, Zuma raised several technical points and argued that the state was not entitled to use the act because it was not seeking to use the information in an "investigation". "The application is an attempt to secure original documents, copies of which have long since been in the possession of the prosecution, in the hope that the original documents will render their contents admissible against me in evidence at trial," he said.

Zuma said the state did not come to court with "clean hands".

Emphasising that this was not a personal attack or slight on any individual, particularly lead prosecutor Billy Downer, Zuma complained that the state had adopted a "misguided and overzealous approach" to the investigation and prosecution.

The matter has been set down for argument on March 22.

With acknowledgement to Tania Broughton and The Star.