It went long into the night. First they met on the lush lawn outside City Lodge hotel in Bloemfontein. Mo Shaik, with his Sherlock Holmes-type pipe; Mac Maharaj, with his briefcase; and Yunus Shaik, with his cellphone.
Then they continued their meeting inside the hotel’s dining hall with their lawyer, Stephen Joseph, locked in deep discussion.
But when it came to the crunch, Mo Shaik and Mac Maharaj backed out of testifying, opting to be given time to obtain documents before they could give evidence. Kessie Naidu’s appointment as evidence leader was criticised right from the beginning by people who said that he was too close to Deputy President Jacob Zuma. On Wednesday he did not endear himself to those people when he supported Shaik’s and Maharaj’s applications to have the evidence postponed to November 17. This was in contrast to Bulelani Ngcuka’s lawyer, Marumo Moerane, and Judge Joos Hefer, who wondered why two men who gave press interviews confirming there was reasonable evidence that Ngcuka was an apartheid spy, were now reluctant to testify. “A fishing expedition” is what Moerane called their behaviour. “We don’t understand why suddenly the two gentlemen are coy about giving evidence when all along they were prepared to tell their story to the whole world.” But the request of the two men was granted, leaving the commission to continue with its work.
Outside the commission Mo Shaik is even more outspoken. “The issue is simple chief, why should we supply the documents? The commission investigators must find those files.” But Shaik intends sitting in at most of the hearing. This commission affects our lives and our integrity.” And the nit-picking between Ngcuka’s office and Maharaj and the Shaiks continued. On Thursday Maharaj mocked Sipho Ngwema, Ngcuka’s spokesperson. As Ngwema greeted him, Maharaj said: “How are you Mr Honeymoon?” He was referring to an article that appeared in The Star in which Ngwema was reported to have said that the past few months had been a honeymoon for the Shaiks and Maharaj.
But if Maharaj and Shaik thought Naidu was going to be Mr Nice Guy, they were mistaken. By Thursday, Naidu was playing tough.
A bitter debate about documents started in the afternoon when Yunus Shaik, acting for his brother Mo and Maharaj, criticised the commission staff for inefficiency and not knowing how to go about obtaining information. The two men have asked the commission to use its powers to help them obtain documents proving their case.
Naidu hit back, saying that the Shaiks wanted so many documents from the commission that they would have to be delivered by the truckload. He said their request for documents was unreasonable and too open-ended.
He said among many organisations they wanted information from was the South African Police Service, the National Intelligence Agency, the African National Congress, Congress of South African Trade Unions and the now defunct United Democratic Front. Some of these documents dated back to the 1980s.
Naidu added that he had watched a video in which Mo Shaik was in possession of documents and he wanted him to hand over these documents.
The two men rounded off the first two days of the inquiry by requesting that the commission foot their travel and accommodation expenses. Yunus Shaik told Judge Hefer that the two were committed to assist the commission and wanted to attend the hearings daily. Judge Hefer said he would convey their request to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.