President Kgalema Motlanthe has been asked to set up a commission of inquiry into the legal battles of ANC president Jacob Zuma and his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

The Society for the Protection of our Constitution made the request in a letter from the offices of Zehir Omar attorneys, in Springs, dated Friday.

According to the letter the commission's primary terms of reference should be twofold, to:
- Investigate and identify people involved in improper conduct associated with the investigations, prosecution, conviction and sentencing of Shaik; any ulterior motives of trial Judge Hilary Squires, the judges who heard Shaik's appeals; and
- Investigate any improper conduct in the setting of the date of the National Directorate of Public Prosecution's appeal against the ruling setting aside charges against Zuma, and whether any ulterior motive prompted the "premature" delivery of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment handed down on November 28, which prevented Zuma from considering a cross appeal.

"Our instructions are that the 'attack' by [SCA] Judge [Louis] Harms and his learned colleagues in the SCA upon [Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris] Nicholson is harmful to our administration of justice," the attorneys wrote.

"According to our client, a cloud of suspicion about the honour of judges of our court will alienate the public from our courts.

"This perception, that was prevalent prior to 1994, is extremely harmful."

In the letter to Motlanthe, the Society for the Protection of our Constitution's lawyers claim, among others, that Harms's finding that Nicholson's "novel approach" to the Zuma case could serve as a "dangerous precedent" if left undisturbed was a "an attempt to conceal the real motive".

This, they contended, was an attempt to displace Zuma as the country's president to try to shape the country's political landscape.

The attorneys said the society wanted any commission appointed to also look into the motives which prompted Chief Justice Pius Langa to make public statements adverse to Zuma, specifically his suggestion at a function that Zuma was merely trying to delay the start of his trial.

Shaik was convicted in 2005 on two counts of corruption and one of fraud and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He started serving his sentence in November 2006 after numerous appeals failed.

However, he has spent lengthy periods in the Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital since then with health problems related to his blood pressure.

Zuma had faced 16 charges, including racketeering, corruption and fraud, related to a bribe he allegedly received from Shaik in return for protecting the arms company Thint during a probe into irregularities in a multi-million rand arms deal.

At the time Shaik was charged, the National Prosecuting Authority said it had enough evidence to charge Zuma too, but that the case against him was "not winnable".

Zuma's case was struck off the roll in 2006 because the State was not ready to proceed. He was recharged in December 2007, days after being elected ANC president.

In setting aside the charges against Zuma, Nicholson found that the failure to charge him had been "bizarre" in a bilateral crime.