Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik will tell his version of events but without the support of his friend Deputy President Jacob Zuma when he enters the witness box in the Durban High Court on Monday.
”The deputy president has not received papers from either of the parties in the Shaik trial, requesting him to appear as a witness. He is therefore not scheduled to appear in court,” said Zuma’s spokesperson Lakela Kaunda, via SMS on Sunday.
Zuma is central to all the charges against Shaik.
The charge of fraud relates to the irregular write-off of money in the books of his Nkobi group of companies, money which the state alleges was used to bankroll Zuma’s expensive lifestyle.
Shaik said he and Zuma had a revolving loan agreement of R2-million which was entered in the confidential part of Parliament’s register of members’ assets.
However, special investigator Johan du Plooy last week told the court it had not been filed there and he had no proof of its existence apart from the copy produced in court by the defence.
Count two of corruption relates to what the state said was a ”generally corrupt relationship” between the two men.
The state said that in exchange for acting as Zuma’s financial adviser and saving him from financial ruin, Shaik used their ”political connectivity” to advance his business interests and also to be chosen as a black economic empowerment partner in certain deals.
Count three of corruption relates to an alleged bribe of R500 000 per annum which Shaik apparently solicited for Zuma from French arms company Thomson CSF. This was in exchange for protection during investigations into alleged irregularities in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal.
In a development favourable to the state, Judge Hillary Squires ruled as admissible the encrypted fax which was allegedly authored by Thomson CSF’s former South African boss Alain Thetard and which records this alleged bribe.
Defence advocate Francois van Zyl, SC, previously told the court that: ”Thetard was not an honest person. He was unreliable before the fax”. He said his client had no knowledge of a bribe and that talks between Shaik, Thetard and Zuma had been about donations for Zuma’s Education Trust Fund.
Van Zyl said Thetard probably ”tried to run a fast one on the company” and tried to make money by writing the fax. Thetard, who is in France, has refused to testify either for the state or for the defence.
The state closed its case last Thursday after Squires gave his ruling on the admissibility of the fax and other documents.
These included two affidavits by Malaysian-based British businessman David Wilson who was formerly with the Renong group which Shaik wanted to partner as a BEE company in the development of Durban’s Point Waterfront Project, and a two-page diary entry by Thetard which relates to a meeting between him, Shaik and Zuma in Durban in March 2000.
Last week Shaik said he had prepared for a ”worst case scenario” which would be testifying in court.
Shaik’s attorney Reeves Parsee said that according to law, Shaik had to take the stand before any of the defence’s other witnesses ”unless there is a compelling reason” to put someone else in the witness box first. – Sapa