Johannesburg: South Africa's top court heard an appeal on Friday to have former president Jacob Zuma declared ineligible to stand for parliament, a politically charged legal showdown ahead of the tightest election in decades.

Zuma, 82, is fronting uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new opposition party that has become a potential disrupter in the May 29 general ballot.

But electoral authorities have argued the graft-tainted politician should be barred from the race because of a 2021 contempt of court conviction.

The Constitutional Court in Johannesburg was called to decide on the matter after a lower court sided with Zuma in April.

Coming only weeks before what is expected to be the most competitive vote since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy in 1994, the case has made some observers nervous.

Zuma's jailing in 2021 triggered a wave of unrest, riots and looting that left more than 350 people dead. There are fears of a repeat.

"Zuma's supporters have threatened violence again this year should things not go their way," said Zakhele Ndlovu, a politics lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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