Businessman Schabir Shaik is still bankrolling Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday.
”I continue to do so till this day,” Shaik told the court at his fraud and corruption trial.
Shaik began testifying in his defence on Monday and for the past two days he has detailed payments made to and on behalf of Zuma.
The payments included money to support Zuma’s wives and children, accommodation, cars and even suits from the exclusive Durban men’s’ boutique, Casanova.
Shaik also footed bills on behalf of the African National Congress but said those bills were regarded as contributions to the party. On one occasion Shaik hired a jet for Zuma when he urgently had to attend an ANC meeting in Johannesburg.
On Tuesday Shaik told the court that at one stage Zuma wanted to leave politics because he could not support his family with the salary he was earning when he was MEC for economic affairs and tourism in KwaZulu-Natal.
”I advised Mr Zuma to stay in politics for the future of our children…” said Shaik. He again emphasised that his relationship with Zuma was not only based on the fact that they were political comrades, but that they were friends as well.
He said Zuma found himself in ”a growing debt situation” because of the financial difficulties he had in providing for his children’s education and for his two wives. Shaik said he wanted to assist Zuma so that he (Zuma) could fulfil his ambition of stabilising the political situation in the province.
”Did you never suggest to him that he reduce his standard of living?” asked Judge Hillary Squires. Shaik replied that there was ”great disparity” between what Zuma spent on his wives and children and what he spent on himself. He said Zuma was not a man prone to ”Cartier watches, Armani perfumes and Hugo Boss suits”, Shaik said.
Zuma earned a net salary of R12 500 and had four children from the late Kate Zuma who were all born in exile, three from Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and two from his first wife.
”I found myself helping a friend with quite a sizeable family which I believe brought him joy in his life,” said Shaik.
Shaik also had to make vehicle payments on behalf of Zuma, although he received a travel allowance, because Zuma also used the car for ANC business and there was a lot of red tape in acquiring a government vehicle.
On Monday Shaik told the court his family also extended their financial support to Zuma. On Tuesday the court heard that former president Nelson Mandela also offered to ”extinguish” Zuma’s debt because he feared that Zuma’s financial problems were ”distracting him from his duties at the ANC”.
Zuma then asked Shaik to consolidate all his debt so that he could present it to Mandela. Zuma, accompanied by Shaik’s attorney Anand Moodley, went to see Mandela in Johannesburg and Shaik was expected to pay for that trip as well.
Shaik said Zuma incurred two types of expenses: those for the ANC and those for his family. He said Zuma was going to pay back the money he had borrowed for his personal use and that apart from two acknowledgements of debt they also had a revolving loan agreement between them.
”I believe he [Zuma] was beginning to take responsibility and internalise … what he owed me.”
However, Shaik said he did not regard the payments for Zuma as liabilities and whether he could pay back or not made no difference because of their friendship.
Shaik’s advocate Francois van Zyl produced a copy of the original loan agreement to the court. Shaik said the document had been drawn up by Zuma’s legal advisor. He said Zuma asked for the original document because he needed to file it in Parliament.
A copy of that loan agreement has already been handed in as evidence to the court but the original document has never been seen by the state and, according to investigators, it has not been lodged in Parliament.
Prosecutor Billy Downer said on Tuesday that he objected to the admissibility of the loan agreement as evidence and that he wanted ”to see the real one”.
At one stage Squires asked why the ANC needed so many contributions, and why it could not finance the Deputy President itself. Shaik replied: ”I wait for the day the ANC does become cash flush, milord, so they don’t have to be in such a precarious position.”
On Tuesday a strained-looking Shaik, who sipped a vitamin drink while giving evidence, was accompanied by his wife Zuleikha for the first time since the start of the trial in October.
The trial continues. – Sapa