Legal teams on both sides of the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial are back at work, although the case only resumes in the Durban High Court on January 31 after its December adjournment.
On Monday, both sides were finalising their heads of argument, which must be filed with Judge Hillary Squires on January 24.
Shaik, a Durban businessman, faces one charge of fraud and two of corruption. This includes soliciting a R500 000-a-year bribe from French arms company Thomson-CSF, for Deputy President Jacob Zuma, in exchange for protection during investigations into arms-deal irregularities.
Shaik said he has spent the past two weeks consulting with his legal team in Cape Town. He said he ”just rested at home” during the court recess and that he is confident because ”global matters are more alarming than the local matters”.
Compared to the tsunami, conflict in Iraq and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Shaik believes ”mine is not a problem, just a slight irritation … like a mosquito around your ankle”.
Senior state prosecutor Billy Downer, SC, said he and his team are still uncertain how many witness will be called, but it will be ”a maximum of four or five”.
Once all the state witnesses have testified, the two legal teams will argue the admissibility of some of the documents handed in as evidence.
Downer said there are about 20 of these documents, including the so-called encrypted fax recording a R500 000 bribe to Jacob Zuma, documents seized at Thomson-CSF in Johannesburg, documents seized in France and some of the statements made by witnesses on what Thomson-CSF boss Alain Thetard told them.
Shaik’s attorney Reeves Parsee said it is impossible to tell how long the case will still be in court or how many witnesses the defence will call. He said the defence’s strategy depends on what the state does, but ”we’ll attempt to rebut whatever we can”. — Sapa