Of all of African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma’s legal manoeuvres of the past few years, his decision to try to appeal this week’s Appeal Court ruling in the Constitutional Court is by far the most cynical.

This has nothing to do with the pursuit of fairness or justice. It is being done purely to delay a trial, in the hope that the ANC can get through an election campaign without its leader having to spend time as an accused in a criminal court. The Constitutional Court should give the Zuma application short shrift.

That would leave Zuma perfectly free to pursue whatever deal he may be able to reach with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Good luck to him ­ we are agnostic on a legal deal, though the NPA cannot afford to be seen to buckle under political pressure.

Zuma and the ANC should also relax a bit. The courts would probably be quite reasonable about setting court dates outside of an election period. And the country and the ANC (and possibly even Zuma himself) would survive his being on trial even if he is the head of state. We all already know he is no saint. Zuma’s job in the government will be to select capable people to run it, not micromanage it. He will have plenty of time for court appearances. It might be uncomfortable but it would not be unmanageable.

For the sake of the country ­ and Zuma in particular ­ this case needs to go to court *1. He is, if anything, small fry in the arms deal scandal anyway and as Judge Louis Harms said in the Appeal Court ruling on Monday, it might take two people to have a corrupt relationship but that doesn’t mean both parties are corrupt.

Zuma may well be found not guilty of fraud and the other charges he faces in a credible court. That would enable him to bring his many profound and positive qualities to bear on healing this country without constantly having to look over his shoulder.

With acknowledgements to Business Day.