The case of controversial Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was postponed in the city’s magistrate’s court on Friday to January 17 next year.
Prosecutor Santhos Manilall told reporters after Shaik’s appearance the case was postponed because the state was waiting for another trial involving Shaik to be finalised. He said the result of that trial could have some bearing on the case, but did not want to divulge details.
Friday’s case relates to Shaik allegedly being in possession of minutes of a Cabinet meeting on the multibillion-rand arms deal.
Shaik, dressed in a black suit, light blue shirt and tie, appeared relaxed on Friday and made small talk with reporters before his brief appearance.
Shaik, who is closely associated with Deputy President Jacob Zuma, will go on trial in October this year on allegations of corruption, tax evasion and fraud.
The allegations follow the Scorpions’ probe into Shaik’s business dealings, including his company, Nkobi Holdings, and several other businesses in which he has interests.
Shaik is alleged to be deeply embroiled in the country’s arms deal and Zuma is alleged to have benefited from Shaik’s business transactions. However, in August 2003, National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka announced that Zuma would not be prosecuted about the arms deal, even though there was a prima facie case against him. Zuma accused Ngcuka of pronouncing judgment upon him.
In December the Pretoria High Court ordered that Zuma get full access to a document that allegedly implicated him in bribery but was withheld from him by the prosecuting authority: a hand-written, encrypted fax in French in which Alain Thetard of the French company Thales (formerly known as Thomson CSF) allegedly stated that he had a meeting with Zuma and Shaik in Durban in 2000.
According to a decoded version of the fax, the discussions concerned the payment of R500 000 per year in exchange for Zuma protecting Thomson CSF during an investigation into the arms deal — in which the company got a contract.
Zuma would also have given Thomson CSF ”permanent support” for future projects, the document allegedly claimed.
The fax was included in the charge sheet in the criminal case against Shaik.
Zuma had wanted to get hold of the hand-written version of the Thetard fax to be able to respond to allegations against him.
The office of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is currently probing how to deal with allegations that Ngcuka abused his office. The investigation includes a complaint lodged against Ngcuka by Zuma. The deputy president had accused Ngcuka of attempting a ”character assassination exercise” against him.
Zuma lodged a formal complaint with Mushwana against the way Ngcuka’s prosecutions directorate conducted the corruption investigation against him.
Ngcuka was cleared earlier this year by the Hefer commission of having been a spy for the apartheid government. But the commission chairperson, retired judge Joos Hefer, found that matters in Ngcuka’s office ”do not appear to be what they should be”. — Sapa