'Hands off our president': Why Zuma's charges haven't nixed his support

There wasn’t much to it. In a cramped courtroom Friday morning, former South African president Jacob Zuma sat in the dock and listened quietly as the teams of lawyers in front of him asked to postpone his corruption trial for six more weeks to finish preparing their cases.

The judge said yes. The court adjourned. And not 20 minutes after he had shuffled into the courtroom, Mr. Zuma was walking back out into the bright winter sunlight, a smile cracking across his creased, round face.

For many South Africans, however, this simple moment was also a deeply