Barring a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal‚ President Jacob Zuma must face charges of corruption that were dropped when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) discontinued his prosecution in April 2009.This follows Friday’s decision by the full bench of the High Court in Pretoria‚ which refused Zuma and the NPA’s application for leave to appeal the judgment the court passed in April which set aside the decision taken by acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe in April 2009.Mpshe dropped the charges because he believed Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy had manipulated the timing of when to serve the indictment against Zuma. Mpshe relied on intercepted conversations between McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka — commonly referred to as the Spy Tapes.The two discussed when to serve an indictment against Zuma – before‚ during or after the African National Congress elective conference of December 2007. The indictment was eventually served after the conference‚ after Zuma had been elected president of the ruling party.In dismissing the application‚ Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba said the arguments raised by the NPA and Zuma were irrelevant and had no merit.NPA’s appeal on Zuma charges ‘had no reasonable prospects of success’The full bench of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday dismissed an application for leave to appeal against a ruling that set aside a decision made in 2009 by the acting National Director of Public Prosecutions‚ Mokotedi Mpshe‚ to discontinue the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma. He said the NPA could not use the intercepted conversations as a basis to withdraw the case against Zuma.He also said the NPA and Zuma invented novel legal grounds as they sought to apply for leave to appeal against the April judgment.He also said there were no questions of law that needed to be dealt with by the Supreme Court of Appeal.The court said setting aside of the withdrawal of charges against Zuma meant the charges were fully reinstated.- TMG Digital..