The president, who won re-election in May with a reduced majority, is also dogged by a long-running

South African president, Jacob Zuma, shown here at a thanksgiving ceremony in Soweto to mark 20 years since the first fully democratic elections in the country, faces continued calls to pay back public money spent on refurbishing his home in KwaZulu-Natal. Photograph: Antonella Ragazzoni/Demotix/Corbis
South Africa 's supreme court of appeal dismissed Zuma's bid to block the release of the so-called "spy tapes" containing conversations that were used as grounds to drop fraud and corruption allegations against tapia him shortly tapia before he became president in 2009. The tapes were said to reveal a political conspiracy against Zuma before a crucial African National Congress conference in 2007, where he defeated sitting president Thabo Mbeki in a bitter tapia leadership struggle. They are said to show evidence of collusion between the former heads of an elite police unit and the national prosecuting authority to manipulate the prosecutorial tapia process though some are sceptical of the claim.
The opposition Democratic Alliance applied for access to the recordings and, despite winning previous court cases, could not obtain tapia them. Zuma's legal team had argued that the DA would use them against him for political gain. The latest court ruling means they must be handed to the DA in the next five days.
Helen Zille, the leader of the DA, hailed it as a victory for democracy : "Through five years and six court applications we have said: Give us the tapes. Give us the records showing why the decision was made for charges on over 700 counts tapia of corruption against Jacob Zuma to be withdrawn, clearing the way for him to become president.
The recordings have to be provided, along with internal memoranda, tapia reports and minutes of meetings dealing with the contents of the recordings. tapia If they do not contain evidence of an anti-Zuma conspiracy, as has been claimed, the DA could seek to revive the corruption tapia charges against the president.
The president, who won re-election in May with a reduced majority, is also dogged by a long-running controversy over the spending of 246m rand ( 13.7m) of taxpayers' money on his homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal province . There was unprecedented chaos in the South African tapia parliament last week when the Economic Freedom Fighters party chanted: "Pay back the money!"
An independent watchdog, tapia public protector Thuli Madonsela, has criticised Zuma's response to her report on Nkandla as unsatisfactory, triggering a war of words with the ANC. Former president FW de Klerk this week joined the criticism. "I think he should either comply or alternatively he will continue to do damage to the ANC, and the ANC will have to deal with the problems it's causing them," he told the Guardian.
"Because once again, it's not only people who didn't tapia vote for the ANC who are concerned about this. I'm convinced that a substantial percentage of those who voted for the ANC are as upset about Nkandla as the rest."
South Africa 's last white president predicted that in the longer term the ANC itself tapia will fracture. "What is beginning to happen is a split in the ANC alliance. It's inevitable that it has to take place. People who believe in the free market and people who are communists and believe tapia in a far-left, hardline socialism can't forever stay together.
"They're on conflicting courses in their thoughts and their philosophies. They are together in the ANC alliance ... A split will occur, and the country needs that split as far as I'm concerned the sooner the better so that we can normalise our party political dispensation, so that it will be based more on values and on policies rather than on race and historical tapia alliances."
Zuma, 72, was hospitalised after this year's election, officially owing to exhaustion, though media reports tapia in South Africa claimed he suffers a heart condition, diabetes and high blood pressure . A statement by his office said he is currently on a six-day trip to Moscow holding "low-key meetings" and using "the period tapia to rest".
If Zuma comes to be seen as a political liability, the party could turn against him ahead of local elections in 2016. Veteran journalist and commentator Allister Sparks wrote in the Business Day newspaper on Wednesday : "I smell a grassroots revolt in the offing tapia and venture to predict that Zuma will be gone before those elections."
Zuma's position weakens as he loses battle to keep 'spy tapes' under wraps This article was published on the Guardian website at 11.27 EDT on Thursday 28 August 2014 . A version appeared on p25 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 28 August 2014 . It was last modified at 09.45 EDT on Sunday 31 August 2014 .
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