The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on President Thabo Mbeki to prevent the “political trial” of his former deputy Jacob Zuma.

Cosatu’s central committee meeting in Kempton Park last night passed a resolution asking Mbeki to intervene to stop the trial, scheduled to take place in the Durban High Court later this year.

Some delegates at the meeting said Zuma had been at the receiving end of an “unprecedented” attack on his constitutional rights. They felt Mbeki could intervene politically to quash his impending trial.

One delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “JZ (Zuma) will be going into the court to prove his innocence. The court system is not supposed to work like that.”

A source in the federation’s leadership said Cosatu would ask Mbeki to take account of the political fallout around Zuma. “There are very powerful people who intend to see him destroyed politically and that is the context of the trial,” he said.

The source said Cosatu would collect a million signatures from its members and the broader community to “petition” Mbeki.

Zuma is due to face two counts of corruption related to his relationship with his financial adviser and convicted fraud Schabir Shaik.

However Cosatu said it did not believe it was possible for Zuma to receive a fair trial, following saturation coverage of his troubles in the media and the damaging statements made by Judge Hilary Squires in his judgment against Shaik.

Squires said that Zuma had “a generally corrupt relationship” with his financial adviser.

“In the light of that, no judge can approach the case without that statement in the back of his mind,” said one source at the meeting.

Last night’s resolution was preceded by a lengthy discussion of the impending Zuma trial after Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told delegates the media had distorted the federation’s support of Zuma as unprincipled and “blind loyalty”.

Should the federation’s petition to Mbeki fail, Cosatu said it would call for “a full high court bench” to hear the case, sources said.

This would involve the appointment of three high court judges to hear the case together.

The three judges appointed would have to be from diverse backgrounds, the federation said.

Constitutional expert Shadrack Gutto said that it was unlikely that Cosatu’s call on Mbeki would be successful.

“Constitutionally it is the national director of prosecutions who can make the decision whether to proceed with a criminal prosecution. The president can’t even lean on the national director.”

It was also wrong to call for a full bench to hear this particular case, Gutto said.

“This would create an uncomfortable precedent, where anyone could say in order to have a fair trial I want to have a full bench.”

Gutto said Mbeki had the prerogative to offer pardons, pending the outcome of the trial.

This was where Cosatu should pin its hopes of defending Zuma, should he be found guilty, he said.

There was also a possible appeal process to be exhausted following the trial, should Zuma be convicted.

But delegates said that the trial would damage Zuma’s chances of succeeding Mbeki as ANC president in 2007 if it went ahead.

This was in fact the intention of Zuma’s political enemies, the delegates said.

Cosatu said it would hold a night vigil outside the Durban High Court the night before Zuma’s trial to show its support.

Sources said that the National Union of Mineworkers and the South African Democratic Teachers Union demanded that the Zuma crisis be discussed by delegates, following what they saw as a failure on the part of the tripartite alliance to support Zuma fully.

With acknowledgements to Vukani Mde and the Business Day.