Nkandla, South Africa  - The trademark Umshini Wam (bring me my machine gun) song of South Africa's presidential frontrunner Jacob Zuma rang out across the hills of his rural Nkandla village in KwaZulu-Natal Monday as his family celebrated the end of his eight- year tussle with the law.

The head of South Africa's prosecuting authority earlier announced he was lifting the corruption charges, on which Zuma was due to stand trial in August. The spectre of a trial had threatened to marr Zuma's expected inauguration as president next month after general elections his African National COngress party is expected to easily win.

Reacting to the announcement, Sizakele Zuma, the first of Zuma's two wives and mother of 17 of his children, told the German Press Agency dpa: "I'm very happy it's over. It's been a long long time now."

Wearing a headscarf knotted at the front in a big bow, and a traditional wrap skirt and blouse, Sizakele was overseeing preparations for a celebration party that night in Zuma's homestead, a kraal (complex) of three houses surrounded by a smattering of traditional rondavels (round huts), with imposing views of plunging green valleys.

Speaking in Zulu through a relative, Sizakele recalled her last long wait for Zuma to be freed by the law when he spent 10 years in Robben Island prison off Cape Town for resisting apartheid.

Smiling through a large gap in her front teeth, she said she was looking forward to being by her husband's side when he was installed as president in Pretoria and to meeting the likes of US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

"He (Zuma) is going to teach me how he's going to be and how to behave in the presidency," she said shyly, while a group of Zuma's granddaughters and neighbours, many wearing skirts and t-shirts bearing the image of his face, launched into a raucous renditions of his trademark struggle-era song.

The charges against Zuma related to payments of more than 4 million rand that he received from his businessman friend Schabir Shaik, who was found guilty of fraud in a multi-billion-dollar 1990s state arms deal.

Zuma claimed the charges were part of a plot to destroy him politically, even though Shaik was found guilty of soliciting a bribe from an arms manufacturer on his behalf.

Zuma's release from prosecution marks another milestone in his spectacular political comeback since his firing as deputy president by Mbeki in 2005.

Mbeki sacked him over the corruption allegations but Zuma bounced back to oust Mbeki as ANC president in 2007. In September last year, Mbeki was forced to step down over a court's inference of political meddling in Zuma's prosecution.

The head of the National Prosecuting Authority said new evidence submitted by Zuma's lawyers revealed a "serious abuse of process" relating to the timing of the charges and that it was "neither possible nor desirable" to continue with the prosecution.

He based his decision on secret tapes of conversations between the former lead investigator in the case and a former prosecutor, which suggested the timing of the charges in December 2007 was aimed at frustrating Zuma's political ambitions.

The NPA's decision came as little surprise, following weeks of media reports forecasting the move. Five jeeps of ANC supporters in party regalia tore through the unpaved streets of Nkandla hooting while hundreds attended a victory rally in Johannesburg.

But analysts complained that Mpshe's explanation, which did not touch on the substance of the case, was flimsy and smacked of political pressure. Mpshe himself was emphatic that the decision did not amount to an acquittal.

Opposition parties had warned that evidence of a political motivation in the case did not mean Zuma was innocent and that he would continue to be tainted by the allegations unless he cleared his name in court.

Zuma was first charged in 2005. The charges were reinstated twice after being set aside twice by the courts on technicalities.

Zuma's supporters in the ANC and allied trade union movement and Communist Party had argued he was being hounded by investigators loyal to Mbeki. (dpa)