South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has overturned a decision to dismiss corruption charges against ruling party leader Jacob Zuma.
The move clears the way for Mr Zuma to once again face prosecution.
However, after the ruling the African National Congress said that he remains the party's presidential candidate.
The decision complicates the ANC's election campaign as the party faces a new political challenge from a breakaway party created in the fallout of the Zuma case.
Judge Louis Harms, the court's deputy president, handed down a verdict overturning a lower court ruling that had thrown out the charges against Zuma.
The earlier ruling had also implied that former president Thabo Mbeki had meddled in the case.
‘Political meddling was not an issue that had to be determined,’ Mr Harms said as he read out the verdict in a nationally televised hearing.
‘Nevertheless, a substantial part of his judgment dealt with this question and in the course of this discussion, it changed the rules of the game. It took his eyes off the ball,’ Mr Harms said.
The earlier ruling failed ‘to distinguish between allegation, fact and suspicion,’ Mr Harms said, saying the lower court had made ‘gratuitous findings’.
The ANC had used the findings to sack Mr Mbeki, sparking a split within the former liberation movement that spearheaded the struggle against apartheid.
Senior ANC members frustrated by Mr Mbeki's sacking have now launched their own party called the Congress of the People, which is gearing up to challenge the elections.
