Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik said on Tuesday he was considering legal action after parts of his defence’s closing arguments appeared in weekend newspapers before they had been dealt with in court.
”This causes prejudice to me and creates the wrong impression about my case,” Shaik told journalists on the steps of the Durban High Court.
”I’ve been punch drunk for the last four years… I’m entitled to a fair trial and a fair case,” said Shaik.
The Durban businessman, who faces two charges of corruption and one of fraud, said he always wondered why Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was so negative towards the press. After 10 to 15 years Mugabe probably woke up one morning and said, ”enough is enough,” said Shaik.
Asked if he would support such media laws in South Africa, Shaik said: ”As long as you continue with your rubbish all the time I’ll be the first to vote for that law.”
He said judge Hillary Squires had previously warned editors not to publish information that had not been presented in court.
On Tuesday Shaik’s counsel, Francois van Zyl, used his last chance to convince the court that Alain Thetard, the former South African boss of French arms manufacturer Thomson CSF, and the author of the so-called encrypted fax, was a liar.
The fax apparently records a bribe of R500 000 per annum for deputy president Jacob Zuma which was allegedly solicited by Shaik from Thomson CSF. This was allegedly in exchange for protection during investigations into irregularities in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms acquisition process.
The fax is central to count three of corruption against Shaik. However, the defence admits that Shaik did approach Thetard for money, but that the funds would go to the cash-strapped Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust Fund.
Thetard’s former secretary, Susan Delique, told the court that he gave her the note when he returned from what she believed was a meeting with Shaik and Zuma in Durban in March 2000.
The typed version of the note is addressed to Thomson’s sales director for Africa, Yann de Jomaron, and headed ”Subject: JZ/S.Shaik”.
It reads: ”Dear Yann: following our interview held on 30/9/1999 with S.Shaik in Durban and my conversation held on 10/11/1999 with Mr J.P Perrier in Paris I have been able [at last] to meet J.Z in Durban on the 11th of this month, during a private interview in the presence of S.S I had asked for S.S to obtain from J.Z a clear confirmation or, at least, an encoded declaration [in a code defined by me], in order to validate the request by S.S at the End of September 1999.
”This was done by J.Z, [in an encoded form]. May I remind you of the two main objectives of the ‘effort’ Requested of Thompson-CSF are:
— Thompson-CSF’s protection during the current investigations (SITRON)
— J.Z’s permanent support for the future projects
Amount: 500k ZAR per annum [until the first payment of the Dividends by ADS].”
On Tuesday Van Zyl said:” the contents of the encrypted fax document is not reliable, because the author of the document is not reliable”.
Although Thetard was on the state’s witness list he refused to come to South Africa, or anywhere else to testify.
As he took apart Thetard’s character and lack of credibility Van Zyl said: ”It cannot with respect be excluded, as a reasonable possibility, that he wrote the encrypted fax document with a hidden agenda and that the meeting never involved an ”encoded declaration” to validate a request for a bribe as the document indicates.”
Van Zyl said the encoded declaration was ”an extraordinary thing to invent for anybody but a French arms dealer”.
Van Zyl questioned why, if Zuma was to be the recipient of a bribe, he openly encouraged an investigation into arms deal irregularities.
He told the court that bearing in mind Thetard’s lack of credibility and the ”improbabilities inherent in the encrypted fax,” it was more than ”reasonably possible” that Thetard could have asked his office for a ”bribe” for Zuma while the true reason for the money could have been completely different.
The defence is expected to wrap up its final arguments on Wednesday morning. – Sapa