South African President Jacob Zuma

REUTERS

South African President Jacob Zuma intends to drop a four-year-old lawsuit claiming nearly $600,000 in damages from a cartoonist who depicted him poised to rape "Lady Justice", a newspaper said on Sunday.

The Sunday Times, named as a defendant in the case, said it had reached an agreement with Zuma's lawyers for the suit and all claims to be dropped, including the demand for monetary damages and an apology, reports Reuters.

Officials for the South African presidency were not immediately available for comment.

The civil case had been due to start on Monday.

Zuma, facing re-election for leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the end of the year, has been criticised for pushing laws seen as trying to muzzle the media.

If the case went forward, it could have provided ammunition for foes in the party who say he wants to silence his critics through bullying.

Zuma had been seeking 4 million rand for defamation from Avusa media and an additional 1 million rand from a former Sunday Times editor for publishing the 2008 cartoon.

Ray Hartley, the current editor, said in the paper: "A lot of time and taxpayer money has been wasted on an ill-considered effort to curtail free expression."

The cartoon from award-winning Jonathan Shapiro, better known by his pen name "Zapiro", shows Zuma's supporters holding down Lady Justice while Zuma stands over the woman with his trousers unzipped.

It was published when Zuma was facing corruption charges that could have blocked his path to the presidency.

A court in 2006 acquitted Zuma of raping an HIV-positive family friend in a case that garnered widespread public interest in a country with one of the world's highest recorded rates of sexual violence.