Ex-South African’s president, Jacob Zuma, has on Monday arrived at a court sitting in Johannesburg for a public-inquiry hearing into state corruption.

Zuma, who resigned last year amid intense pressure by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), will be asked to respond to allegations that he allowed cronies to plunder state resources and influence senior government appointments during his nine years in power.

The former president has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying the allegations against him are politically motivated. In a letter to the inquiry commission last month, his lawyer said Zuma believed it was prejudiced against him.

Zuma is expected to give evidence from Monday to Friday in a hearing that will be broadcast live on South African TV.

“In all honesty, the commission asked me to come to testify and put forward any information that I might have,” Zuma said on Friday, ahead of the televised hearings.

“We will see how things pan out, but I am going there,” he added.

The inquiry, led by Judge Raymond Zondo, said last month that Zuma was invited to appear “to enable him give his side of the story”.

According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Johannesburg, Haru Mutasa, there was great public interest in the inquiry, but it was not yet clear if Zuma would testify.

“This is not a legal proceeding, but a state inquiry commission. So he has the choice whether he testifies or not,” she said, adding that his request to see questions in advance was denied.

“He also wanted to be able to cross examine some of the witnesses, but it is not clear if he would be allowed to do that.”

Report has it that, since his departure from office, Zuma has been in court on several occasions to answer corruption charges linked to a deal to buy military hardware for the armed forces in the 1990s

In that case” Zuma is accused of committing 16 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to a multibillion-dollar arms contract involving military hardware supplied by French defence company Thales to South Africa's armed forces.

"Zuma tends to view processes of justice and government,  such as when he was called before parliament and the courts,  ... as being beneath him in a very patronising and paternalistic way,”  said Ayesha Kajee, a South African political analyst.