Johannesburg - For R5, you could buy a small bottle of Coke or a Lotto ticket with two prize lines - or you could send an SMS and contribute to former deputy president Jacob Zuma's legal costs.

When the newly founded Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust announced its bank account details on Tuesday, an SMS number was also announced to collect money so the dismissed deputy president could pay the legal costs of his forthcoming corruption trial.

By sending the word "Zuma" to 36045, South Africans can contribute R5 to the fund.

President Thabo Mbeki fired the deputy president in June after a damning judgment by Judge Hilary Squires in the trial of Schabir Shaik, Zuma's financial adviser.

Judge Squires found there had been a "generally corrupt relationship" between Zuma and Shaik and that the deputy president had accepted a bribe from French armaments firm Thales.

Later, the national prosecuting authority (NPA) announced it would be prosecuting Zuma on at least two charges of corruption.

Zuma's friends launched their new initiative on Tuesday at a congress of the central committee of what is possibly his greatest ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust was registered on July 13 with the master of the High Court.

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson and the Beeld.