The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday it believed that any appeal by President Jacob Zuma in the so called "spy tapes" case had no prospect of success and that the president would eventually stand trial to face the racketeering and corruption charges.

"I have no doubt that the NPA and Zuma will petition the SCA for leave to appeal. Faced with this unanimous and emphatic judgement, I doubt the SCA will come to a different conclusion, which will then clear the way for the trial to start. We believe this case will get to a trial court before his [Zuma] term of office ends," DA MP James Selfe told reporters on Pretoria.

Handing down the judgement in the North Gauteng High Court on Friday, Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said the court’s April judgement that set aside the 2009 NPA decision to drop the 783 criminal charges of racketeering and corruption against Zuma was clear on how and why it arrived at that decision.

The bench had again meticulously looked into the application for leave to appeal, he said.

"When the court deals with an application for leave to appeal, leave may only be given if we are of the opinion that the appeal would have reasonable prospects of success or if there are some other compelling reasons. In our view, there are no novel legal issues raised in the matter," said Ledwaba.

He added that the applicants, in their arguments, "invented novel legal grounds".

"The applicants misinterpreted sections of the judgement or some selective sentences of the judgement. The fact that the public has an interest in the matter is not a justification to grant leave to appeal."

The criminal charges were withdrawn in 2009 by the then prosecutions head Mokotedi Mpshe shortly before the national elections that brought Zuma to power.

The high court’s April ruling found that Mpshe’s decision was irrational, and that he was under political pressure to withdraw the charges which stemmed from the multi-billion rand arms deal signed a decade earlier.

The case was brought to court by the Democratic Alliance in a lengthy legal battle to get the courts to overturn the 2009 decision.