The second witness for the defence in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial, Zandile Mdhladhla, told the Durban High Court on Thursday that the Jacob Zuma Education Trust Fund did not qualify for funding from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
However, ”we received money from Mr Mandela as a person”, said Mdhladhla, who is the acting vice-chairperson of the Zuma trust fund.
She said the fund was started in 1996/97 to serve students at primary, secondary and tertiary level — especially orphans of political violence from KwaZulu-Natal’s rural Nkandla area, where Zuma comes from.
Later, Aids orphans were included as well, she said.
Mdhladhla is the defence’s second witness after Shaik left the stand following a tough grilling by Judge Hilary Squires on Thursday morning.
She said if one looked at the trust fund’s books, it seemed as if it had money.
However, it had commitments as more students were coming through the system.
She said Zuma had always stressed that fund-raising was a priority.
”The demand is always there, especially for rural communities,” she said.
Mdhladhla said she was never told if promises of donations were made, like in the case of the Mandela cheque of R1-million, which was brought to a meeting by a Mr Pretorius from Absa bank.
Pretorius was responsible for overseeing the trust’s financial affairs.
Shaik faces one charge of fraud and two of corruption.
The state claims that attempts by Shaik to get a donation for the trust fund from French arms company Thomson CSF were nothing but a cover for bribe money.
It alleges that Shaik solicited R500 000 a year for Zuma from Thomson and that meetings that were allegedly for education donations were really about the bribe.
This bribe was in exchange for protection during investigations into arms-deal irregularities.
Shaik’s company, Nkobi, and Thomson CSF won an IT contract related to the navy’s new corvettes through a shareholding in African Defence Systems. — Sapa