ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma refused to step down after the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled on Wednesday that he must return to court on August 25.

"What has happened to me is that certain people have thrown this dark cloud to me with the aim of demonising me," said Zuma, who is likely to become the country's next president in the forthcoming elections.

"So if I step aside, a bad precedent will be created. People will know that if you hate somebody, you just throw a dark cloud and it is the end of the story.

"I am not going to step aside simply because I have not been found guilty by any court of law. I respect the Constitution and I understand it," he told supporters outside the court.

Earlier, analysts expressed concern that the man likely to be elected president in the forthcoming elections would be the subject of at least two major court cases.

Zuma had lodged an application with the Constitutional Court to challenge the Supreme Court of Appeal's ruling that he was not entitled to make representations to the prosecuting authority when he was recharged.

He and co-accused, arms company Thint, were given a timeline on Wednesday for when legal papers must be filed in the case against them.

Thint intended having the charges that its two entities, Thint Southern Africa and Thint Ltd, consolidated and then applying for a permanent stay of prosecution in the court on June 24.

Zuma would also have to return to the Pietermaritzburg High Court on August 25 where he intended applying for a permanent stay of prosecution in the long-running investigation against him. It centred on accusations of bribery in the country's multi-billion rand arms deal.

Political analyst Prince Mashele said: "The implication is that we are likely to have a sitting president who will shuttle between the Union Buildings and court."

The trial would "suck the moral content" out of society because a president was supposed to embody national values.

The ANC Youth League lashed out at the NPA, asking why they would want to embarrass Zuma by putting him on trial *1.

"When Zuma comes back to court in August he will come back as the president of this country and the judges will have to address him as the president," said league president Julius Malema.

"I just want to ask those who are behind this case if they would be proud to prosecute their own president, and embarrass their own country."

The Young Communist League said Zuma would become president, no matter what.

The ANC, which did not believe he would get a fair trial, joined the legal battle by applying to become friends of the court, as part of its own strategy to support him.

Meanwhile, the NPA was also strategising for the Constitutional Court where they believed they would be "back to square one" if Zuma won there *2.

If the court granted them a hearing, and if Zuma won, they would have two options: give him a chance to make representations *3, or abandon the case altogether *4, said spokesman Tlali Tlali.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.