There is indeed a political solution to the "crisis" surrounding the impending prosecution of Jacob Zuma. It is for him to renounce any claim to the presidency of SA until he has been acquitted on all charges against him.

The "crisis" is of course manufactured *1, notably by communists and trade unionists  threatening mayhem if Zuma's prosecution goes ahead. No country valuing the rule of law and the principle of equality before the law can allow itself to capitulate to such blackmail.

Anyone trying to organise violence should be arrested and put on trial. *2 The state should further ensure that it has enough well-drilled policemen on duty in Pietermaritzburg on September 12 to suppress any attempts at violence outside Judge Chris Nicholson's courtroom.

It would be advisable for the senior officials of the African National Congress (ANC) who paraded outside Nicholson's courtroom last month to stay at home next week. The dividing line between shows of solidarity for Zuma and attempts to intimidate the courts is becoming thinner, and it is time for the ANC top brass to counteract the impression that they identify with the campaign to malign the judiciary.

Although it has been claimed that Zuma's rights have been violated by the interminable delays in bringing him to trial, this is no argument for stopping his prosecution. *3 It is for the courts to decide whether delays on the part of the prosecution outweigh those caused by the tactics of Zuma's own legal team.

There may be merit in the allegation that Zuma has been singled out for prosecution while others involved in the arms deal got away scot-free. There is an obvious solution for this, too. It is to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into that deal with a mandate to refer for prosecution any culpable behaviour. Nobody, however high his past or present office, should be exempt from scrutiny by the commission. The body to undertake any prosecutions should naturally be the Scorpions (which is yet another reason for their retention).

As for some in business who argue for the prosecution to be stopped because they crave certainty, they are misguided and shortsighted. The certainty they should be demanding is certainty of a different kind, namely that the rule of law should be fearlessly upheld instead of being undermined by the political interference they advocate.

The arms deal and the Zuma issue have already cost SA too much. If the law is allowed to take its course, something will be retrieved from the wreckage as the courts and the prosecution service are allowed to do their work without fear or interference from the ruling party. If Zuma were to do the honourable thing and withdraw, that would save the ANC from what promises to be its next act of folly: using Parliament to enact legislation to put a stop to the prosecution.

If Zuma does not withdraw, the ANC must allow the law to take its course. Failing that, it will have to use Parliament to do its dirty work. This would be hugely damaging to the country, but less so than if the prosecuting authorities are browbeaten into submission or cajoled into making a deal.

The shabby business when President Thabo Mbeki tried to stop the national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, from proceeding against the national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, was damaging to SA. But it was better that Pikoli was fired rather than bullied into shirking his duty and compromising his integrity. So from that disreputable affair, a hero emerged.

If the ANC is willing to subvert the rule of law and the principles upon which the post-apartheid SA was founded, let this be done openly in Parliament in the full glare of the international spotlight instead of by deals which compromise the prosecution service and undermine the judiciary. That way we will know that although the Zuma affair has contaminated the ANC and Parliament, the rot has spread no further.

Kane-Berman is CE of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

With acknowledgements to John Kane-Berman and Business Day.