Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik used his influence with Deputy President Jacob Zuma to squash attempts by a United Kingdom professor to start an eco-tourism school in KwaZulu-Natal, the Durban High Court heard on Thursday.
This was the evidence of John Lennon, professor of travel and tourism at the University of Glasgow, supported by a series of letters before the court.
Lennon said the school was intended to impart tourism-related skills to boost the economy and to ensure the local industry was prepared when huge international hotel chains came to invest in the country.
Lennon said he came to South Africa in August 1998 as part of a British government trade mission.
He gave a presentation in Johannesburg which Zuma was supposed to attend although he did not know if Zuma was there. At the end of the presentation, Shaik, like many others, came up to him expressing support for the project and handed him his business card.
The initial idea was to establish two schools — one in Mpumalanga and one in KwaZulu-Natal.
Lennon said before he came to South Africa he had been working with a company in the UK who had associate companies in South Africa who were involved in a similar field.
He said Zuma was said to be very excited about the project and met him at his office in Durban.
At that time Zuma was the MEC for economic affairs and tourism ”seemed very keen at the idea” and gave Lennon an oral pledge of 25 000 pounds for the school.
Zuma said he would give Lennon a letter of support. Lennon returned to the UK and waited for the letter ”which took a long time to appear”.
Eventually he sent a draft letter to Zuma and when it was returned a few months later it introduced Nkobi, Shaik’s company as a possible joint venture partner.
He said the document was signed by Zuma and faxed from the Nkobi offices.
Lennon said it was still too early to talk about partners as they were still doing feasibility studies.
In the letter Zuma said he felt that a local partner was required and ”I have already had discussions with one such partner, Nkobi Holdings”.
Lennon then received a letter from Martin Sermon, head of development at Nkobi, saying Shaik wanted to confirm his interest in the project and wanted to know how Nkobi could contribute.
Lennon replied that it was ”early days yet” and he would discuss it with his South African partners.
In February 1999, Shaik responded by saying he was ”highly insulted” by Lennon’s reply, found himself marginalised and it was only through his intervention that Lennon got support from Zuma.
The letter Zuma had written including Nkobi Holdings was to go have been submitted to the Development Bank of SA for funding for the tourism school.
He gave Lennon three days to respond — or he would get Zuma to withdraw his support for the school.
Lennon said he found this ”unusual and irregular” and it suggested a degree of influence over Zuma.
”I just didn’t have time to jump for something like this.”
He said while there seemed to be much support for the idea of a school, and despite the hard work and presentation by his partners in South Africa, they failed to get anywhere with the project. – Sapa