A "sober judge" will scrap corruption charges against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, youth leaders said on Tuesday.

"We believe the court will be sober... No sober judge will be ruling in favour of the prosecution," said Young Communist League (YCL) Gauteng secretary Alex Mashilo.

He was speaking ahead of the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling on Friday on an application to drop the charges against Zuma.

"The NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] has violated its own rules. There is no way that the judge can find in favour of the NPA.

"If the court rules otherwise... we will unleash a mass struggle campaign," said Mashilo, explaining this meant that they would hold marches and pickets. "We will mobilise all our resources to make sure the case comes to
an end."

His colleague, Thabo Kupa, Gauteng African National Congress Youth League secretary, added: "If JZ does not win the case... that is actually going to be a crisis."

The Gauteng Progressive Youth Alliance, which consists of the ANCYL, the YCL and the Congress of South African Students, said it had arranged that youth from six regions in Gauteng would be bussed to Pietermaritzburg on Friday to show support for Zuma.

Kupa and Mashilo, who also criticised a cartoon of Zuma preparing to rape lady justice, attacked the judicial system, saying it lacked transformation and accused the Constitutional Court of political bias.

The Constitutional Court recently ruled that search and seizure raids related to the corruption charges against Zuma were lawful. The judges of the court also laid a complaint against Cape Judge President John Hlophe, accusing him of attempting to interfere in its Zuma ruling.

Kupa said Constitutional Court Judge President Pius Langa was pursuing a political agenda favouring President Thabo Mbeki.

"The judges of the Constitutional Court... their agenda has been political as opposed to upholding the rule of law.

"Langa himself was appointed by the current State President. His [Langa's] conduct was very problematic," said Kupa.

Asked whether he meant that Langa was pursuing a political agenda in favour of Mbeki, Kupa replied: "Yes".

Mashilo added that Langa was not the only guilty one, but all the judges of the Constitutional Court. "The Constitutional Court has brought itself into disrepute," said Mashilo. "We want judges who work in a transformed system," he added.

Turning to Jonathan Shapiro's cartoon of Zuma, Mashilo said they would call on all their members to boycott the Sunday Times newspaper in which it was published.