ANC President Jacob Zuma will not go on trial for corruption *1.

Monday's long-awaited court appearance in Pietermaritzburg will be the official start of a concerted and unprecedented three-pronged strategy to ensure he never sits in the dock again.

* He will utilise every legal avenue to delay the trial;

* The ANC will consider amending the constitution to prevent a sitting president (as Zuma will be next year) from being prosecuted; and

* The ANC will consider a blanket amnesty for all involved in the controversial arms deal.

The comprehensive legal, political and social strategy is such that the effect of Zuma's bruising defeat in the constitutional court this week could be neutralised.

On Friday, the ruling party admitted as much when its leaders returned from a trip to Mozambique.

"Jacob Zuma will lead the ANC's election campaign. We are not assuming that he will be absent for it. We have made a commitment to Zuma to be at his side at court and we will be at his side when he goes to the Union Buildings," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said.

Mantashe said the party hoped the case would be thrown out on Monday.

Every single one of the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) will be in Pietermaritzburg on Monday in support of their president.

The KwaZulu-Natal capital is expected to be brought to a standstill as the ANC Youth League buses in members from across the country - a strategy that will begin in earnest on Sunday.

In what is expected to be the largest massing of tripartite alliance members since the fall of apartheid in 1994 *2, Mantashe said the ANC had asked its members to travel to KZN in solidarity.

This week the league's KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership vowed to close Maritzburg for the two days that Zuma will be in court.

Trade unions and taxi bodies will all be stopping operations in support of Zuma.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu have vowed to come out in solidarity.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema on Friday announced the launch of a signature campaign which includes an SMS service where members of the public who felt aggrieved by the outcomes of Zuma's court cases can send messages, at a cost of R3 per SMS.

The initiative is being driven by the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKVA).

ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa conceded yesterday that Thursday's constitutional court ruling had been a "huge blow" to the ANC, but said it had been expected.

"It is a political case. This is the first time I've seen a case where an accused has had to wait for five years for charges to be laid. *3 And I've also never seen charges change as often as they have (with Zuma)."

This was echoed by ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe in the online newsletter ANC Today on Friday. He said Zuma was being persecuted rather than prosecuted.

On Thursday, the constitutional court upheld a ruling by the supreme court of appeal that the warrants for the search and seizures of documents from the homes of Zuma and his offices had been lawful.

The seized documents can now be used in his criminal trial in Pietermaritzburg, but by the time the trial can actually proceed, Zuma could well be president of the country.

Zuma's lawyers will apply for his prosecution to be thrown out on Monday, on the basis that the State did not allow Zuma the chance to "make representations" about the charges against him.

Should Pietermaritzburg high court Judge Chris Nicholson find against Zuma in his latest court application, his attorney Michael Hulley has confirmed that he will appeal - a process that could go all the way to the constitutional court and take at least two years to finalise.

If Zuma fails in South Africa's highest court, he will bring a separate application for a permanent stay of prosecution. This process could again take years to complete, making it highly probable that Zuma will be president *4 if and when he must finally appear in a court of law.

It is in keeping with the "Stalingrad" legal approach described by Zuma's advocate Kemp J Kemp nearly two years ago as "we fight them in every room and in every street". The penultimate political strategy involves what is known as the Chirac *5 option.

According to University of the Western Cape Professor Pierre de Vos, the ANC could, after the elections next year, amend the constitution to prevent a sitting head of state from being prosecuted - as was done in Italy two weeks ago to stop the corruption trial of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi *5.

France did the same when it passed a law which made then President Jacques Chirac immune from prosecution.

The final strategy involves the issuing of a blanket amnesty to all politicians involved in the arms deal *6, the source of Zuma's criminal charges.

A working document, produced by advisors to the ANC NEC's "arms deal task team" and which the ANC has sought to distance itself from, shows how top minds within the party believe an amnesty for Zuma could be justified.

* This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on August 02, 2008

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan, Kashiefa Ajam, Siyabonga Mkhwanazi, Sapa and Independent Online.