Jacob Zuma will this Saturday be handed a formidable witness list of politicians, business people, lawyers and a host of investigators who will form part of the state's arsenal in the corruption case against him.

They are among the people named on the witness list officially released on Tuesday and attached to the provisional indictment against the country's former deputy president and current deputy president of the African National Congress.

The indictment will be handed to Zuma when he appears in the Durban regional court on Saturday for his case to be referred to the Durban High Court for trial on July 31 next year.

Zuma has been charged with two counts of corruption. Also charged are Thint Holding (Southern Africa) (Pty) Ltd, accused Number 2, and Thint (Pty) Ltd, accused Number 3.

Thint Holding is owned by the arms giant Thales of France, and itself owns 80 percent of Thint. The other 20 percent of Thint is owned by Nkobi Holdings, previously managed by Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik and now run by his brother Mo.

Neither accused No 2 nor No 3 will appear in the regional court on Saturday.

In terms of the summons served on the companies, they need only appear in Durban before the high court in July.

On Tuesday night Pierre Moynot, chief executive of Thint, said he believed neither his parent company in France nor the French justice ministry would co-operate with the Scorpions.

He noted that in the Shaik trial his company had been granted immunity from prosecution by former justice minister Penuell Maduna and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka.

"There are no new facts, and I do not understand why we are being charged again. I think this is purely a political matter," said Moynot.

"Mr Zuma never asked for anything at all from Thales and we have never paid him anything at all," Moynot added. All three accused are each charged with two counts of corruption.

The main charge against Zuma is that he benefited in a corrupt manner from his relationship with Shaik, to the tune of about R1.3-million. Some of this money is alleged to have gone towards the construction of his rural homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu Natal, which cost R1.34-million.

Both Thint companies are charged with having been party to an arms deal bribery request which was allegedly set out in a so-called encrypted fax written by Thint's then local representative, Alain Thetard.

It was in exchange for an affidavit from Thetard about the fax that Thales was granted immunity from prosecution in the trial of Schabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser, who was sentenced to 15 years for corruption and fraud.

The list of state witnesses names 105 people, who will be called to testify against Zuma at his trial in July next year.

One of these - a superintendent Dharmendra Jugoo of the Mauritian police - died some years ago of natural causes, and another is advocate Billy Downer - one of the NPA prosecutors. One witness's name is repeated twice. So an effective list of 102 people is lined up to testify against Zuma.

Independent Democrats (ID) Patricia de Lille, Temba Sono, formerly of the ID, and Gavin Woods, formerly chairman of the standing committee on public accounts, parliament's financial watchdog, are expected to be called.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is to make sure Saturday's court appearance will be free of incident. The party is aiming to avoid the embarrassing excesses by pro-Zuma supporters that occurred at his last court appearance, such as the burning of ANC T-shirts bearing president Thabo Mbeki's face.

This was revealed on Tuesday by ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu, who said 150 marshals would be on duty around the Durban magistrate's court from Friday.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin, Nalisha Kalideen, Sipho Khumalo and the Cape Times.