Shaik trial: What did Zuma do?

Doubts surrounding the black economic empowerment (BEE) suitability of Schabir Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings resulted in two meetings between Deputy President Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thomson-CSF, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. Shaik has pleaded not guilty to two charges of fraud and corruption.

The state alleges that Shaik used his ”political connectivity” with Zuma to influence the awarding of a tender in the country’s multi-billion rand arms deal and that he solicited a R500 000 a year bribe for Zuma in exchange for protection during

investigations into arms deal irregularities.

Defence advocate Francois van Zyl admitted that Zuma met with Shaik and Jean-Paul Perrier, from Thomson, while on an official visit to London in 1998 and attended part of a meeting involving Perrier and Shaik in South Africa in November that year.

However, he said Zuma was not involved in influencing the tender process in the awarding of contracts for the supply of naval corvettes.

”What did Zuma himself do, what acts did he commit?” Van Zyl asked forensic auditor Johan van der Walt, who has been in the witness box for the past 14 days.

In his Scorpions-commissioned report, Van der Walt said there were indications that former president Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki were involved in negotiations and discussions during the period leading up to the announcement of the preferred bidder.

However, he said it appeared their involvement was limited to attempts to resolve disputes regarding the BEE-partner component in the shareholding structure of Thomson-CSF and African Defence Systems (ADS), the umbrella-body under which Thomson and Nkobi tendered for the corvette contract.

Van Zyl said Zuma’s involvement was no different from that of Mandela or Mbeki.

Although he turned blood-red at times and constantly reached between different files to get to documents to substantiate his claims, Van der Walt was unwavering in his oft-repeated reply: ”One can’t look at events in isolation M’lord.”

Van Zyl told the court that the meeting in London occurred because Zuma was concerned about the conduct of Thomson in South Africa and rumours that Mbeki, as president of the African Nations Congress, had said Nkobi was not a valid BEE partner.

On Tuesday the court also heard that Floryn Investments, an Nkobi subsidiary dormant since 1997, was used as a vehicle for donations to the ANC.

Van der Walt said that by the end of 1997 an amount of about R400 000 had been paid to Floryn investments from the Nkobi group, but that this was not reflected in the group’s annual financial statements.

Van Zyl pointed out that the Nkobi group had changed auditors in 1999 which would have covered the period of the financial statements.

Earlier, Van der Walt was also questioned about the informal and formal processes involved in the arms deal process.

Van Zyl tried to prove that Zuma was not involved in the arms acquisition deal and could not influence the selection process because there were various committees involved in making the decision.

The tender was eventually awarded to the German Frigate Consortium in which Thomson-CSF participated on November 18 1998.

Thomson-CSF had a shareholding in ADS which fell under this consortium and Nkobi also had a ten per cent shareholding in ADS. – Sapa