Businessman Schabir Shaik’s defence counsel discussed in his closing argument on Friday the deep-rooted friendship between the fraud and corruption accused and Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
Francois van Zyl, SC, told the Durban High Court that the state’s forensic auditor, Johan van der Walt, conceded that a payment on behalf of Zuma by Shaik could initially have been made out of friendship.
”Even Van der Walt had to concede that initially the payment could have been made out of a friendship relationship,” said Van Zyl.
Van der Walt, in his testimony, gave the court a detailed account of the payment.
He said it was no secret within Shaik’s Nkobi group of companies that payments were made to or on behalf of Zuma.
”Also, outside parties knew that Accused One [Shaik] was making payments on behalf of Zuma,” Van Zyl said. ”Accused One did not try to hide this fact.”
He said Shaik believed Zuma would repay the money when he received the lump-sum portion of his pension, but if he could not pay him back, Shaik would not have pursued the issue.
Van Zyl said the secretary of Cabinet, Reverend Frank Chikane, confirmed that Zuma had declared an amount of R1,5-million as a liability owing to Shaik.
He questioned why Zuma would declare a benefit to Parliament and why there were acknowledgements of debt if he was corrupt.
Judge Hillary Squires said: ”It’s nothing virtuous to declare. As I see it, he was losing nothing by declaring.”
Van Zyl replied: ”Human nature being what human nature is, it is highly unlikely for you to declare if you are corrupt.”
The defence began it final argument on Friday.
Earlier in the day, when dealing with Shaik’s credibility as a witness, Van Zyl said: ”Zuma was a long, long-standing friend, that differentiates this from other cases.”
He was referring to count one of general corruption against Shaik, in which the state alleges he made payments to Zuma in return for using Zuma’s name to further his business interests.
Van Zyl called on the court to consider the number of years that have passed since the various incidents that made up the case occurred.
He also asked the court to consider the number of facts involved, pointing out that refreshing one’s memory from documents and reconstructing events means it is ”virtually unavoidable” that there will be contradictions when giving testimony.
”The court should consider how material the various aspects were,” said Van Zyl.
Shaik also faces a charge of fraud for the alleged irregular write-off of money from his company books. A third charge, also of corruption, deals with an alleged bribe sought for Zuma from French arms manufacturer Thomson CSF.
The state concluded its final arguments on Thursday. — Sapa